The Acadiana Advocate 09-06-2025

Lafayette rolls out school scorecards

Superintendent touts accountability system, construction projects

BY ASHLEY WHITE Staff writer

Lafayette Parish Superintendent

Francis Touchet Jr announced a new accountability method for the district’s schools — scorecards that measure how well they’re meeting the district’s four core values.

Touchet introduced the scorecards during his state of the district presentation Thursday night at Lafayette High.

His address also touted accomplishments from the last year, ranging from finished construction projects to a raise in teacher pay

The scorecards measure how each school meets the district’s core values safety, culture, opportunity and growth — on a five-star scale. Schools are then given an overall score based on the average of each category

The core values are based on stakeholder feedback of what they want to see in schools, Touchet said

“After 35 years as an educator I felt the accountability system in Louisiana was

The state has its

Georgia immigration raid detains 475 people

Federal agents swarm Hyundai electric vehicle site

BY RUSS BYNUM and KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press

ELLABELL, Ga. — Immigration authorities said Friday they detained 475 people, most of them South Korean nationals, when hundreds of federal agents raided the sprawling manufacturing

site in Georgia where Korean automaker Hyundai makes electric vehicles.

Steven Schrank, the lead Georgia agent of Homeland Security Investigations, said during a news conference Friday that the raid resulted from a monthslong investigation into allegations of illegal hiring at the site and was the “largest single site enforcement operation” in the agency’s two-decade history

The Thursday raid targeted one of Georgia’s largest and most high-profile manufacturing sites,

where Hyundai Motor Group a year ago began manufacturing electric vehicles at a $7.6 billion plant. The site employs about 1,200 people in an area about 25 miles west of Savannah, where bedroom communities bleed into farms. Gov Brian Kemp and other officials have touted it as the state’s largest economic development project. Agents focused their operation on an adjacent plant that is still under construction at which Hyundai has partnered with LG Energy Solution to produce bat-

teries that power EVs.

Court records filed this week indicated that prosecutors do not know who hired what it called “hundreds of illegal aliens.” The identity of the “actual company or contractor hiring the illegal aliens is currently unknown,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office wrote in a Thursday court filing.

The South Korean government expressed “concern and regret” over the operation targeting its citizens

Morgan City event improves seafood sourcing over last year

BY JOSIE ABUGOV Staff writer

One Louisiana seafood festival has done a better job of living up to its name. In a complete turnaround from last year, all seven vendors sampled at the Morgan City Shrimp and Petroleum Festival served authentic Gulf shrimp at the Labor Day weekend event, testing showed. At the same festival last year, four out of five vendors sampled sold imported shrimp advertised as local.

The investigation in Morgan City marked a yearlong effort by a food technology company to conduct genetic testing at seafood festivals and restaurants around the region. Traveling from North Carolina to Texas, SeaD Consulting discovered that scores of restaurants were falsely advertising their shrimp.

CBS won’t edit ‘Face the Nation’ interviews

Days after complaints over the handling of an interview with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on “Face the Nation,” CBS News said Friday it would no longer allow editing of its guests’ words on the Sunday morning public affairs show.

Noem charged that CBS had “shamefully edited the interview to whitewash the truth” about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose mistaken deportation to El Salvador made him a symbol of controversies about President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. Her interview had been taped in advance.

Going forward, CBS said it would only broadcast live or live-to-tape interviews on the show meaning guests’ statements could not be edited. CBS said the change was made “in response to audience feedback.”

Shortly before Paramount Global’s sale to Skydance was given federal approval, Paramount paid $16 million to settle a lawsuit from Trump over a “60 Minutes” interview with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

CBS said it had edited four minutes out of its Noem interview for time. On social media, Noem focused on an excised clip where she made a series of unproven accusations about Abrego Garcia, which she said emphasize “the threat he poses to American public safety.”

CBS News noted that the unedited interview was posted on its website and on YouTube, but that didn’t stop the complaints

Hurricane Kiko surges on way toward Hawaii

MIAMI Hurricane Kiko regained intensity to a Category 4 system on a path toward Hawaii over the next several days as post-tropical cyclone Lorena soaked Mexico’s Baja California peninsula with heavy rain, forecasters said Friday Kiko had maximum sustained winds of 130 mph, said the National Hurricane Center

The major hurricane was about 1,195 miles east-southeast of Hilo, Hawaii, but forecasters said Kiko could have impacts on the state next week. Some Hawaiian islands could experience swells that cause life-threatening surf and rip currents as soon as the end of the weekend

Lorena was expected to weaken further and dissipate on Sunday, the weather agency said, but it could still bring isolated rainfall amounts up to 12 inches to parts of the Mexican states of Baja California Sur, Baja California, Sonora and Sinaloa.

In Arizona and New Mexico, heavy rainfall of up to 4 inches was still possible and could lead to isolated flash flooding into Saturday, the weather agency said Calif. man found living secretly in crawl space

A California man was found living secretly in the crawl space of a condominium in Oregon, according to officials.

Lights dangled from overhead, a fan was placed at one end of the room, and a television was also found hanging on a beam when Clackamas County Sheriff deputies made the discovery Wednesday, according to an official statement.

The man, Benjamin Bucur, 40, had allegedly run an extension cord through a vent to provide lighting and power for his electronic devices.

Deputies discovered the makeshift living space in an unincorporated area near Portland.

Deputies were contacted by a witness who told deputies they had spotted a man parking his car and walking behind a building. The witness said they did not believe the man lived in the complex. The resident followed Bucur and found a door to a crawl space open, and light coming from inside. Then someone closed the door

Deputies breached the locked door and found Bucur inside, along with with a bed, lights, chargers, TV and other electronic equipment.

A former resident of Patterson, Calif., Bucur was convicted in May 2010 on charges of burglary and auto theft, according to a statement from the Stanislaus County district attorney’s office.

Judge blocks end to TPS status

Administration trying to revoke protections for Haitians, Venezuelans

BY JANIE HAR Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from ending temporary legal protections that have granted more than 1 million people from Haiti and Venezuela the right to live and work in the United States.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen of San Francisco for the plaintiffs means 600,000 Venezuelans whose temporary protections expired in April or whose protections were about to expire Sept 10 have status to stay and work in the United States. It also keeps protections for about 500,000 Haitians. Chen scolded Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for revoking protections for Venezuelans and Haitians that the judge said would send them “back to conditions that are so dangerous that even the State Department advises against travel

to their home countries.”

He said Noem’s actions were arbitrary and capricious, and she exceeded her authority in ending protections that were extended by the Biden administration.

Presidential administrations have executed the law for 35 years based on the best available information and in consultation with other agencies, “a process that involves careful study and analysis. Until now,” Chen wrote.

Plaintiffs and their attorneys welcomed the news Friday, although it’s unclear if it would help people who have already been deported.

“In recent months, people have suffered unspeakable harm — including deportation and family separation due to the Supreme Court greenlighting Secretary Noem’s discriminatory and harmful agenda,” said Emi Maclean, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Foundation of Northern California.

“That must end now.”

A DHS spokesperson said in an email that the program has been “abused, exploited, and politicized as a de facto amnesty program” and that “unelected activist judges” cannot stop the American people’s desire for a secure country

“While this order delays justice, Secretary Noem will use every legal option at the Department’s disposal to end this chaos and prioritize the safety of Americans,” the email read.

Temporary Protected Status is a designation that can be granted by the Homeland Security secretary to people in the United States, if conditions in their homelands are deemed unsafe for return due to a natural disaster political instability or other dangerous conditions.

Millions of Venezuelans have fled political unrest, mass unemployment and hunger The country is mired in a prolonged crisis

Texas laws signed after deadly flooding at camps

BY SEAN MURPHY Associated Press

In the days and weeks following the death of his 9-year-old daughter, Lila, at Camp Mystic in the Texas Hill Country, Blake Bonner found himself wondering whether the tragedy was simply an unstoppable act of God, or if something could have been done to prevent it

Lila was one of 27 Camp Mystic campers and counselors swept to their deaths when fast-rising floodwaters of the Guadalupe River roared through the girls’ summer camp. All told, the destructive flooding in Texas on the Fourth of July killed at least 136 people and washed away homes and vehicles.

“It just became clear to me that this incident was 100% preventable,” Bonner said, and for a lot of reasons, I was going to do everything in my power, and I was hoping the other parents would as well, to make sure that our girls’ legacy wasn’t in vain.” Bonner and many other parents and family members of the girls who died at Camp Mystic were in the Texas House and Senate gallery this week during a special session to see lawmakers give final approval to a series of bills aimed at preventing similar tragedies. Many of

them shared hugs, handshakes and tears after they passed.

Gov Greg Abbott, who was flanked by family members as he signed several of the bills into law Friday, recalled the grieving parents visiting with him and his wife and urging swift action before the start of the special legislative session.

“They pleaded that their daughters did not die in vain. They wanted laws to be passed so that other parents would not experience the hell that they had been through,” Abbott said. “The Legislature understood that mission they tapped into empathy and they delivered laws that will be in effect when camps open this next summer, laws that make youth camps safer.”

The measures aim to improve the safety of children’s camps by prohibiting cabins in dangerous parts of flood zones and requiring camp operators to develop detailed emergency plans, to train workers and to install and maintain emergency warning systems. One allocates $240 million from the state’s rainy day fund for disaster relief, along with money for warning sirens and improved weather forecasting.

“All the key tenets that we were looking for were addressed in these bills,” Bonner said.

Neurosurgeon says there are ‘rays of hope’ for girl injured in Minn. shooting

BY STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS — There are “rays of hope” for a 12-year-old girl critically injured in last week’s deadly shooting at a Catholic church in Minneapolis, though her neurosurgeon cautioned Friday it is still hard to predict whether she will survive.

Sophia Forchas was the most seriously wounded child among those who survived after a shooter opened fire at the Church of the Annunciation on Aug. 27. Two students were killed, and 21 people were injured. The shooter died by suicide, police said.

Sophia remains in intensive care at Hennepin Healthcare Her neurosurgeon, Dr. Walt Galicich, said at a news conference that a bullet, which remains lodged in her brain, caused severe damage, including

to a major blood vessel. Surgeons had to remove the left half of her skull to relieve the pressure inside her head.

“If you had told me at this juncture, 10 days later, that we’d be standing here with any ray of hope, I would have said it would take a miracle,” Galicich told reporters. He said they are banking on the ability of young brains to heal and make up for the damage.

Sophia is still being kept in a medically induced coma most of the time to control the swelling, Galicich said. She is opening her eyes and showing some level of awareness of her surroundings, and has some slight movement in her right leg, but she’s still not responding to commands, he said.

“It’s day by day and I can’t tell you how this is going to end,” the doctor said. “I know she’s had a stroke from that injury to that blood vessel. I don’t know what her permanent deficits are going to be But we’re a little bit more optimistic that she’s going to survive.”

brought on by years of hyperinflation, political corruption, economic mismanagement and an ineffectual government.

Haiti was first designated for TPS in 2010 after a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 earthquake killed and wounded hundreds of thousands of people, and left more than 1 million homeless Haitians face widespread hunger and gang violence. Their designations were to expire in September but later extended until February, due to a separate court order out of New York.

Noem said that conditions in both Haiti and Venezuela had improved and that it was not in the national interest to allow migrants from the countries to stay on for what is a temporary program. Attorneys for the government have said the secretary’s clear and broad authority to make determinations related to the TPS program are not subject to judicial review

Ga. is eighth state to send troops to D.C.

BY JEFF AMY Associated Press

ATLANTA Georgia Gov Brian Kemp announced Friday that he’s sending 316 members of the state’s National Guard to Washington, D.C., later this month in the latest indication that President Donald Trump’s law enforcement operation in the nation’s capital will drag on.

The Republican Kemp said he will mobilize the roughly 300 troops in midSeptember to take part in Trump’s D.C. operation to relieve soldiers from elsewhere who deployed earlier

“Georgia is proud to stand with the Trump administration in its mission to ensure the security and beauty of our nation’s capital,” Kemp said in a statement.

Trump initially called up 800 members of the District of Columbia National Guard to assist federal law enforcement in his bid to crack down on crime, homelessness and illegal immigration. Since then, seven other Republican-

led states have sent troops — Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina South Dakota, Tennessee and West Virginia. Kemp said Georgia’s soldiers may be armed and will support law enforcement.

Trump last month took over the district’s local police department and deployed the National Guard in what he said was meant to fight crime. Earlier this week, members of the D.C. National Guard had their orders extended through December The District of Columbia on Thursday challenged President Donald Trump’s use of the National Guard in Washington asking a federal court to intervene even as he plans to send troops to other cities in the name of driving down crime.

Brian Schwalb, the district’s elected attorney general, said in a lawsuit that the deployment, which now involves more than 1,000 troops, is an illegal use of the military for domestic law enforcement.

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Trump order rebrands ‘Department of War’

Department of Defense received name in 1947 by act of Congress

BY CHRIS MEGERIAN, SEUNG MIN KIM and KONSTANTIN TOROPIN Associated Press

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday aiming to rebrand the Department of Defense as the Department of War — a long-telegraphed move aimed at projecting American military toughness around the globe.

“It’s a much more appropriate name, especially in light of where the world is right now,” Trump said He said the previous name was “woke.”

The order comes as some of Trump’s closest supporters on Capitol Hill proposed legislation that would codify the new name into law, with Congress having the sole power to establish, shutter and rename federal departments. Absent a change in law, Trump will authorize the Pentagon to use secondary titles.

islation in the Senate.

Force.

Trump: U.S. will host G-20 at his golf club

By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Friday that the U.S. will host next year’s Group of 20 summit at his golf club in southern Florida.

In his first term, Trump tried to host a separate global summit at the club, located in Doral, but backed down after criticism from his own party about the propriety of doing so.

“Well, I think everybody wants it there,” Trump said Friday when asked if the global summit would be at his golf club and spa. He had previously announced that it would be in the city of Miami. Trump said organizers had requested the summit be at his personal club.

change the name back to the Department of War because it “just sounded better.”

In August, Trump told reporters that “everybody likes that we had an unbelievable history of victory when it was Department of War. Then we changed it to Department of Defense.”

Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, are introducing companion leg-

“From 1789 until the end of World War II, the United States military fought under the banner of the Department of War,” Florida Republican Rep. Greg Steube, an Army veteran, said in a statement. “It is only fitting that we pay tribute to their eternal example and renowned commitment to lethality by restoring the name of the ‘Department of War’ to our Armed Forces.”

The Department of War was created in 1789, then renamed and reorganized through legislation signed by President Harry Truman in 1947, two years after the end of World War II. The Department of Defense incorporated the Department of War, which oversaw the Army, plus the Department of the Navy and the newly created independent Air

“We decided to go woke and change the name to Department of Defense,” he said. “So we’re going Department of War.”

Pentagon leader Pete Hegseth, who spoke alongside Trump, said, “We haven’t won a major war since” the name was changed. He said, “We’re going to go on offense, not just on defense.”

Trump has said he wants to

When confronted with the possibility that making the name change would require an act of Congress, Trump told reporters that “we’re just going to do it.”

“I’m sure Congress will go along,” he said, “if we need that.”

Trump and Hegseth have been on a name-changing spree at the Pentagon as they uproot what they de-

scribe as “woke” ideology, sometimes by sidestepping legal requirements. For example, they wanted to restore the names of nine military bases that once honored Confederate leaders, which were changed in 2023 following a congressionally mandated review Because the original names were no longer allowed under law, Hegseth ordered the bases to be named after new people with similar names. For example, Fort Bragg now honors Army Pfc Roland L. Bragg, a World War II paratrooper and Silver Star recipient from Maine, instead of Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg.

Executive order creates ‘wrongful detention’ designation

Nations that hold U.S. citizens can face penalties

BY MICHELLE L. PRICE Associated Press

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday that would let the U.S. designate nations as state sponsors of wrongful detention, using the threat of associated sanctions to deter Americans from being detained abroad or taken hostage. The designation, similar to the state sponsors of terrorism designation that the U.S. already imposes on some nations, will allow the State De-

partment to target countries falling under the label with penalties such as economic restrictions, restrictions on visas for those involved and travel restrictions for Americans to those countries.

“Like the State Sponsor of Terrorism determination, no nation should want to end up on this list,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement. It’s aimed at making it easier to impose penalties on nations that block or restrain Americans, and impose a major penalty on countries that don’t release those U.S nationals.

“With this EO you are signing today, you are drawing a line in the sand that U.S. citizens will not be used a

bargaining chips,” Sebastian Gorka, senior director for counterterrorism on the National Security Council, told Trump as he signed the order at the White House on Friday afternoon. The designation is designed for Rubio to be able to lift the penalties if a nation changes its practices. It wasn’t immediately clear when the U.S. might begin applying the new label and to which countries, but two senior administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the order being signed cited China, Afghanistan, Iran and Russia as nations that could potentially face penalties under the new designation. The order allows the des-

Kilmar Abrego Garcia is ineligible for asylum, administration says

BY BEN FINLEY Associated Press

The Trump administration is fighting Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s bid to apply for asylum in the United States, arguing that he’s ineligible as a member of the MS-13 gang

The Department of Homeland Security on Friday released immigration court documents that outline its arguments against Abrego Garcia applying for asylum or receiving it.

A primary argument is that Abrego Garcia is a member of a designated foreign terrorist organization, MS-13, an allegation that Abrego Garcia denies and for which he hasn’t been charged.

Abrego Garcia, 30 became a flashpoint over President Donald Trump’s immigration policies when he was wrongfully deported to his native country of El Salvador in March. The U.S. returned him in June, but only to face federal human smuggling in Tennessee, which his lawyers have called preposterous and vindictive. He has pleaded not guilty

BY MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Two teenagers were arrested Friday on murder charges

Abrego Garcia had fled threats of gang violence in his native El Salvador around 2011 to join his brother in Maryland. And while his first asylum request was denied, he was granted protection from deportation to El Salvador because he had established a well-founded fear of gang violence there. Abrego Garcia was released in 2019 under federal supervision and continued to live with his American wife and children.

Immigration experts have said that Abrego Garcia’s new asylum application could lead to a green card and a path to citizenship. But by reopening his 2019 case, he also risks being sent back to El Salvador The Trump administration stated in court documents this week that it would pursue returning him to his native country if he successfully reopens his previous immigration case.

“Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s lawyers are playing with fire,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement on Friday It

added: “As a member of a designated foreign terrorist organization, MS-13, he is no longer eligible for his previous immigration relief.”

Abrego Garcia had arrived outside a Home Depot in Maryland in 2019 in search of work as a day laborer, according to court documents.

Authorities had been told by a confidential informant that Abrego Garcia and other men outside the store could be identified as members of MS-13 because of their clothing and tattoos.

Abrego Garcia was never charged He was turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and subsequently applied for asylum and ultimately received protection from being deported to El Salvador In February, the Trump administration designated MS13 to be a foreign terrorist organization and wrongfully deported Abrego Garcia to a notorious El Salvador prison, where he claims he was beaten and psychologically tortured. El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, has denied those allegations.

ignation to also be applied to groups that control territory even if they are not recognized governments. Global Reach, a nonprofit organization that had advocated for the return of wrongfully detained Americans, praised the executive order “The previous administration returned around 75 people in four years. The Trump Administration is only 228 days into their fouryear term and has already

brought home 72,” said Global Reach CEO Mickey Bergman. Trump has made bringing home Americans jailed abroad a focus in his second term.

“We’ve gotten a lot of people out and we’ll continue,” Trump said Friday In July, his government organized a three-nation swap, securing the release of 10 jailed U.S. citizens and permanent residents from Venezuela in exchange for getting home migrants de-

ported by the United States to El Salvador Seven other Americans determined to be wrongfully detained in Venezuela were returned this year A Russian-American woman who was convicted on treason charges for making a $52 donation to a charity aiding Ukraine was freed by Moscow in April as part of a prisoner swap. A similar swap in February freed an American teacher detained in Russia on drug charges.

results in the annual letter grades schools and districts receive in the fall.

“It should never just be about letter grades,” the superintendent said.

Touchet’s announcement of a district accountability system comes before the state rolls out a new accountability system that will weigh standardized testing even more heavily than it already does. For example, end-of-year tests will now count for 75% of a high school’s rating, up from 25% in the previous system.

For the Lafayette Parish scorecards, test scores will still be taken into account under the growth category But the other values will help give a more complete picture of how a school is serving its students, families and staff, Touchet said.

Several indicators will be considered for each core value. Safety not only measures a school’s physical safety, but also what’s being done to meet the social and emotional needs of students and staff. Culture will assess how engaged a school is with families and how welcoming it is for everyone, as well as discipline and attendance. Opportunity measures what activities exist for students, including athletics, extracurriculars and advanced learning options.

Touchet said Lafayette is the first district in the state to adopt its own account-

SHRIMP

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“I am so pleased,” said Dave Williams, CEO of SeaD Consulting. “It’s very difficult to get people to change. Finally, (the Shrimp and Petroleum Festival) got their house in order and I’m very proud to say we had something to do with it.”

The company’s rapid genetic testing helps address a problem plaguing the floundering coastal industry For years, shrimpers have struggled to compete against cheap imports and a pattern of fraudulent mislabeling at seafood restaurants. Around 90% of shrimp sold in the United States is farm-raised and imported, according to the Louisiana Shrimp Association.

Kermit Duck, a commercial shrimper in Morgan City, said in a statement that the festival “finally represents Louisiana shrimpers.”

“Without the exposure in the press last year, visitors to the festival would likely still be served imported shrimp,” he said.

ability system. Scorecards for the previous school year will be released in the fall. That means the scorecards released this week measure the 2024-2025 school year In the spring, progress reports will be released as a snapshot of the current year’s progress

“I want the public to know that we are trying to get away from the status quo and trying to be progressive in our decision making,” he said.

Touchet touts successes

During his speech, Touchet also highlighted the district’s successes from the past year.

A large portion of that spotlighted the construction work that’s been completed in the district and is in the works Those projects include the completed

replacement of Lafayette High and the start of the major renovations at Judice Middle, L.J. Alleman Middle and Acadiana High. The board also voted to fund a new gym at David Thibodaux STEM Academy, which serves middle and high schoolers.

“This school board has been progressive and has done things no other board has done as far as making resources available for the development of the infrastructure of our school system,” he said. “We’ll be able to look back after 10-15 years and say this infrastructure held up and will be there for our students for years to come.”

The board has focused on replacing aging buildings and removing portable classrooms and buildings from campuses.

Touchet also celebrated

STAFF FILE PHOTO By BRAD KEMP

A tub of shrimp is readied to be boiled on Aug. 17 during the 73rd Annual Shrimp Festival at the docks in Delcambre.

A festival organizer was not immediately available to comment.

RAID

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Koreans are rarely caught up in immigration enforcement compared with other nationalities. Only 46 Koreans were deported during the 12-month period that ended Sept. 30, 2024, out of more than 270,000 removals for all nationalities, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“The business activities of our investors and the rights of our nationals must not be unjustly infringed in the process of U.S. law enforcement,” South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lee Jaewoong said in a televised statement from Seoul. Lee said the ministry is dispatching diplomats from its embassy in Washington and consulate in Atlanta to the site, and planning to form an on-site response team.

Immigration attorney Charles Kuck said two of his clients who were detained had arrived from South Korea under a visa waiver program that enables them to travel for tourism or business for stays of 90 days or less without obtaining a visa.

One of his clients, he said, has been in the U.S. for a couple of weeks, while the other has been in the coun-

Stricter seafood rules

A new state law that recently took effect seeks to address the mislabeling problem. As of Jan 1, Louisiana restaurants are required to clearly state the country of origin of the shrimp and crawfish that they’re selling Restaurants in violation could face thousands of dollars in fines.

The Louisiana Shrimp Task Force, which reports to the state wildlife agency, hired the food tech company to conduct this testing. SeaD releases its Louisiana find-

try for about 45 days. He did not provide details about the kind of work they were doing, but said they had been planning to go home soon.

Schrank told reporters in Savannah that while some of the detained workers illegally crossed the U.S. border, others had entered the country legally but had expired visas or had entered on a visa waiver that prohibited them from working. He said some of those detained worked for the battery manufacturer, while others were employed by contractors and subcontractors at the construction site

Schrank said he didn’t know precisely how many of the 475 detained were Korean nationals, but that they made up a majority No one has yet been charged with any crimes, he said, but the investigation is ongoing.

“This was not an immigration operation where agents went into the premises, rounded up folks, and put them on buses,” Schrank said. “This has been a multimonth criminal investigation where we have developed evidence and conducted interviews, gathered documents and presented that evidence to the court in order to obtain a judicial search warrant.”

He said most of the detainees were taken to an immigration detention center in

ings to the wildlife agency, and enforcement authorities in the Health Department can view the data, Williams said.

While the company has found that some Louisiana cities are still mislabeling their shrimp, Williams described the state as a “guiding light for authenticity,” especially New Orleans and Slidell. In the two southeast Louisiana cities, around 90% of restaurant shrimp was found to be authentic.

But farther along Interstate 10, the figure drops, Williams said, and in central and north Louisiana cit-

Folkston, Georgia, near the Florida state line.

Sweeping ICE operations

President Donald Trump’s administration has undertaken sweeping ICE operations as part of a mass deportation agenda. Immigration officers have raided farms, construction sites, restaurants and auto repair shops.

The Pew Research Center, citing preliminary Census Bureau data, says the U.S. labor force lost more than 1.2 million immigrants from January through July. That includes people who are in the country illegally as well as legal residents.

The Democratic Party of Georgia on Friday condemned the raid, with its chair Charlie Bailey calling the raids, “politically-motivated fear tactics designed to terrorize people who work hard for a living, power our economy and contribute to the communities across Georgia that they have made their homes.”

Kemp and other Georgia Republican officials, who had courted Hyundai and celebrated the EV plant’s opening, issued statements Friday saying all employers in the state were expected to follow the law

The Hyundai site sits on 3,000 acres in a largely rural area of Bryan County, draw-

LANDRY

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lodging and transportation they receive as part of their work. The legality of the flights themselves was never at issue in the case.

The settlement document also lists five other private flights Landry took and did not disclose in 2022 and 2023 for official business as attorney general, including trips to Washington and a helicopter ride to the governor’s mansion.

Landry also disclosed 13 trips he took while governor that were paid for by someone else.

the board within 60 days of travel.

Landry’s attorneys last year asked for clarification on the applicability of these rules to the governor, arguing “it is implicit” that an agency head who accepts complimentary travel under state ethics laws is certifying such benefit either to the agency or to his professional development.

raising the pay for all teachers and raising the starting pay for LPSS teachers to $50,000. Part of that funding for raises also included incentive pay for teachers who help students grow in core subjects and for teachers taking on extracurriculars.

Physical improvements also are on the agenda for coming years, Touchet said. Plans include demolishing S.J. Montgomery to build baseball and softball fields for Lafayette High, improvements to Acadiana High by the fall of 2027, an addition to Judice Middle School by late 2026 or early 2027, improvements to L.J. Alleman Middle School by the fall of 2027 and possibly a new school on the north side of Lafayette.

Staff writer Claire Taylor contributed to this report.

ies, the amount of authentic Gulf shrimp dips below half.

Other states fared far worse, said Williams, a commercial fisheries scientist by trade. Genetic testing found that 96% of restaurants in the Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida, area were serving imported shrimp while implying their food was local.

“A lot of the time, people think they’re eating good fresh seafood and they’re not,” Williams said. “We’re trying to stop that from happening.”

Concerns over imported shrimp made national headlines last month, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration detected a radioactive chemical in raw frozen shrimp imported from an Indonesian company

“I believe in homegrown Louisiana shrimp, fresh out of the Gulf, not radioactive,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-Madisonville, said Thursday on the U.S. Senate floor “But I understand some stores prefer to buy foreign shrimp because it is cheaper.”

Email Josie Abugov at josie.abugov@ theadvocate.com.

ing in workers from several surrounding counties and communities including Savannah.

Sammie Rentz opened the Viet Huong Supermarket less than 3 miles from the Hyundai site six months ago. The store sells both American and Asian products, he said, but he mostly relies on Hyundai workers seeking foods imported from Korea.

“Koreans keep this store running,” said Rentz, who worries business may not bounce back after falling off sharply since the raid.

“I’m concerned. Koreans are very proud people, and I bet they’re not appreciating what just happened. I’m worried about them cutting and running, or starting an exit strategy.”

Ellabell resident Tanya Cox, who lives less than a mile from the Hyundai site, said she had no ill feelings toward Korean nationals or other immigrant workers at the site. But few neighbors were employed there, and she felt like more construction jobs at the battery plant should have gone to local residents.

“I don’t see how it’s brought a lot of jobs to our community or nearby communities,” Cox said. “Where we used to hear birds chirping and animal life around here, now we hear the plant when it’s fully going at night.”

At its monthly meeting Friday, the Ethics Board voted without opposition to adopt the settlement and dismiss the charges. Attorneys representing Landry and the Ethics Board are expected to ask a judge to sign off on the agreement at an Oct. 13 hearing.

“The Governor is pleased the ethics board agreed to clarify who needs to file paperwork related to official travel,” Stephen Gelé, an attorney representing Landry in the case, said in a statement. “He is glad to bring an end to this matter and continue to save the taxpayers money, as he was already doing.”

Ethics Board Chair Jason Amato declined to comment after Friday’s meeting.

The agreement

The settlement agreement between the Ethics Board and Landry, known as a consent opinion acknowledges Landry violated state disclosure laws by not filing reports of the flights.

“In this particular situation, it is the conclusion of the Board that the interest of the public would be served by and the parties have agreed to resolving this matter amicably through the publication of this Consent Opinion with the imposition of a $900 civil penalty against Jeffrey M. Landry,” the document states.

The consent opinion also notes that, had the matter been allowed to go to trial, a judge could have ordered Landry to pay up to $10,000 for each violation.

Board clarifies rules

The board on Friday also adopted a formal advisory opinion saying the Louisiana governor is required to file a disclosure form designed for public officials to report to the Ethics Board complimentary travel or lodging they receive in the course of official duties.

Under state ethics law, the head of an agency must approve any complimentary travel provided to an employee and certify that it either benefits the agency or the professional skill set of the official, who must then file that approval with

Hyundai began producing electric vehicles at the site last September A few months later, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chairman Euisun Chung, during a White House appearance with Trump, credited the president with the company’s decision to create more American jobs by building an EV factory in Georgia.

“Our decision to invest in Savannah, Georgia, creating more than 8,500 American jobs, was initiated during my meeting with President Trump in Seoul in 2019,” Chung said at the March event.

Battery plant to open

The battery plant operated by HL-GA Battery Co., a joint venture by Hyundai and LG Energy Solution, is slated to open next year

The board’s advisory opinion said that, because of the way the law is written, it can’t simply assume the travel is certified and approved, and Landry must file the disclosure, signing off twice as both the official accepting the free travel and the agency head approving it.

“Governor Landry is required to file Form 413 with the Board within sixty days of his receipt of complimentary admission, lodging, and transportation received in connection with his duties as Governor of the State of Louisiana,” the advisory opinion states.

Landry molded board Since he became governor in 2024, Landry and the Legislature have worked to make major changes to the Ethics Board. That year, he signed a bill expanding the board from 11 to 15 members and did away with an appointment protocol meant to insulate the board from political influence.

Previously a nominating committee made up of private university presidents put forward a slate of five candidates from which the governor selected an appointment. Now, the governor can appoint anyone of his choosing to the board.

Landry also signed into law a measure granting him the authority to name the chairs of nearly 150 state boards and commissions, including the Board of Ethics. This year he appointed five new members to ethics panel, and he quickly named Amato to the chair position as one of the new appointees. He also recently backed an overhaul of laws that govern how the board handles investigations into public officials over alleged misconduct. The new laws created additional hurdles the board must clear before it can launch an investigation as well as other protocols it must follow during an investigation.

Supporters said the new investigation rules will ensure officials under investigation receive due process, but detractors said the rules will limit the effectiveness of a board that is supposed to ensure public officials are acting in the best interest of those they serve.

Gelé, Landry’s attorney for the ethics charges, played a central role in crafting the new ethics investigation procedures.

In a statement to The Associated Press, LG said it was “closely monitoring the situation and gathering all relevant details.” It said it couldn’t immediately confirm how many of its employees or Hyundai workers had been detained.

Operations at Hyundai’s EV manufacturing plant weren’t interrupted by the raid, said Bianca Johnson, plant spokesperson. Hyundai Motor Company said in a statement Friday it was “working to understand the specific circumstances” of the raid and detentions.

“As of today, it is our understanding that none of those detained is directly employed by Hyundai Motor Company,” the company’s statement said. HL-GA Battery Co. did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday In a statement Thursday, the company said it’s “cooperating fully with the appropriate authorities.”

Those arrested Thursday who fight deportation may be detained as their cases wind through immigration court.

In a search warrant and related affidavits, agents said they wanted employment records for current and former workers; personnel files; payroll information; bank account information; timecards; video and photos of workers; and immigration documents. Social Security cards, visas, passports and birth certificates also were targeted. The agents also sought records about the ownership and management of multiple construction companies and contractors named in the search warrant materials. The documents included the names and photos of four people identified as “target persons” to be searched, without further information about them.

Israel strikes high-rise building in Gaza City

Residents warned to evacuate

BY WAFAA SHURAFA, JULIA FRANKEL and BASSEM MROUE Associated Press

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip Israel struck a high-rise building in Gaza City on Friday after an evacuation warning, as the military stepped up operations aimed at seizing control of the famine-stricken city of some 1 million Palestinians. Strikes elsewhere in Gaza City killed at least 27 people, health officials said The military accused Hamas militants of using high-rises in the city for surveillance and planned ambushes, and said it would carry out “precise, targeted strikes” on militant infrastructure in the coming days Israel has begun mobilizing tens of thousands of reservists and is repeating evacuation warnings as part of its plan to widen its offensive, which has sparked opposition domestically and condemnation abroad.

Palestinians said Friday’s strike targeted the Mushtaha tower in Rimal, an upscale neighborhood before the war Gaza City resident Ahmed al-Boari said people

Palestinians run for cover Friday during an Israeli

City after the Israeli army issued a warning

fleeing Israeli operations elsewhere in the city had sought shelter in and around the building. Satellite imagery showed a large number of tents nearby. It was not immediately clear if anyone was wounded or killed in the strike.

Israel said it struck the building because it was used by Hamas for surveillance. Photos of the building taken before Friday’s strike

showed that its roof was already heavily damaged from earlier raids.

Israel has declared Gaza City, in the north of the territory, to be a combat zone. Parts of the city are already considered “red zones” where Palestinians have been ordered to evacuate ahead of expected heavy fighting.

The city’s Shifa Hospital said 27 people were killed in

Israeli strikes overnight into Friday, including six members of a single family The Israeli military says it only targets militants and blames Hamas for civilian deaths because the militants operate in densely-populated areas.

The offensive has also sparked widespread protests among Israelis who fear it will endanger hostages still held in Gaza, some of

whom are believed to be in Gaza City There are 48 such hostages, 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive.

The protesters accuse Netanyahu of prolonging the war in order to satisfy his far-right governing partners instead of reaching a ceasefire with Hamas to bring the hostages home.

Hamas released a propaganda video Friday of two hostages in Gaza City The video shows Guy GilboaDalal in a car, at one point joined by another hostage, Alon Ohel.

Gilboa-Dalal speaks, likely under duress, pleading for an end to the war and the return of hostages. He was last seen in a video more than six months ago with another hostage, Evyatar David, as they watched other hostages being released during a ceasefire.

Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people in their attack on southern Israel that triggered the war on Oct. 7, 2023. Most have since been released in ceasefires or other agreements.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 64,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or com-

batants but says women and children make up around half the dead.

Israel says the war will continue until all the hostages are returned and Hamas is disarmed, and that it will retain open-ended security control of the territory of some 2 million Palestinians. Hamas has said it will only release the remaining hostages in return for Palestinian prisoners a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups protested new U.S. sanctions aimed at Palestinian civil society, saying in a joint statement that they would inflict “severe harm on key human rights organizations that have worked for decades to protect Palestinians.”

The Trump administration on Thursday announced sanctions on three Palestinian groups — Al Haq, Al Mezan, and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. The new measures would make it harder for them to receive donations from the United States.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S was targeting the groups over their involvement with the International Criminal Court’s efforts to investigate, arrest and prosecute Israelis.

U.K. PM overhauls government after top deputy resigns

BY JILL LAWLESS and PAN PYLAS Associated Press

LONDON U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer shook up his Cabinet Friday after his top deputy stepped down over a tax error on a home purchase, leaving a big hole in the center-left Labour government Starmer carried out a major reshuffle, a forced government reboot after a rocky 14 months in office that have seen his popularity plunge. Foreign Secretary David Lammy was moved to replace Angela Rayner as deputy prime minister, and also took the justice portfolio. Yvette Cooper moved from the Home Office to become foreign secretary while the justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, became home secretary Treasury chief Rachel Reeves was kept in post, meaning that the three major offices of state below the

BY JINTAMAS SAKSORNCHAI

Associated Press

prime minister will be occupied by women for the first time in history

expressed regret but said Rayner had made the right decision.

Rayner

The changes came after Rayner handed in her resignation to Starmer because an independent inquiry concluded that she hadn’t met the ethical standards required of government ministers over h er recent purchase of an apartment in Hove, on England’s south coast. The report concluded that she should have sought more specific advice, even though she acted in good faith.

“I take full responsibility for this error,” Rayner said in her resignation letter to Starmer “I would like to take this opportunity to repeat that it was never my intention to do anything other than pay the right amount.” In response, Starmer

BANGKOK Veteran Thai politician Anutin

Charnvirakul was elected prime minister on Friday after winning a parliamentary vote, according to an official tally.

The leader of the Bhumjaithai party won a total of 311 votes, far exceeding the 247 required majority from the House of Representative’s 492 active members He and his government are expected to take office in a few days after obtaining a formal appointment from King Maha Vajiralongkorn Anutin, 58, succeeds Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who was dismissed by court order as

“I have nothing but admiration for you and huge respect for your achievements in politics,” Starmer wrote. The handwritten letter signed off “with very best wishes and with real sadness.”

Rayner is a hugely popular member of the Labour Party and was widely tipped to be a potential successor to Starmer In addition to resigning as deputy prime minister and housing secretary, Rayner quit as deputy leader of the party, meaning that members will have to select someone new Starmer will be hoping that the bold changes allow him to seize back the political agenda following days of speculation surrounding Rayner’s future, and months of turmoil for his administration. His government has seen its support fall sharply since its landslide victory in

last year’s election, following a string of missteps over welfare reform and mounting public concern about immigration.

Rayner will remain a U.K. lawmaker on the back benches.

In the U.K., levies are charged on property purchases, with higher charges due on more expensive homes and secondary residences. Reports have suggested that Rayner saved nearly $54,000 by not paying the appropriate levy,

known as a stamp duty on her $1 million purchase.

Rayner, 45, had sought to explain that her “complex living arrangements” related to her divorce in 2023 and the fact that her son has “lifelong disabilities” underlay her failure to pay the appropriate tax.

Rayner’s journey from teenage single mother to trade union official to lawmaker and deputy prime minister is a rarity in British politics. Her no-nonsense attitude

and plain-speaking manner have been a distinct — and politically useful — contrast to the more pragmatic, lawyerly Starmer and she will be hard to replace.

Rayner, who also held the housing brief, had often railed against those who deliberately underpay tax, particularly those in the preceding Conservative administration, which Labour replaced in July 2024. Her previous comments had opened her up to charges of hypocrisy

prime minister last week after being found guilty of ethics violations over a politically compromising phone call with neighboring Cambodia’s Senate President Hun Sen. A border dispute erupted into a deadly five-day armed conflict in July

Anutin had served in Paetongtarn’s Cabinet, but he resigned his position and withdrew his party from her coalition government after news of the leaked phone call caused a public uproar

Anutin had served in the Pheu Thai-led coalition government that took power in 2023 and before that in the military-backed elected government under former Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha.

Immigration crackdown intensifies

BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN Staffwriter

TheLouisianaNational Guard has mobilized 95 troops to support ICE operations in the state, another step Gov.Jeff Landry has taken to support President Donald Trump’simmigration crackdown. The soldiers were mobilized Aug. 25 and sent to various locations across the state to assist with “administrative, clerical, and logistical tasks,” according to a releasefromthe Louisiana National Guard.

Lt. Col. Noel Collins,a spokespersonfor the agency,said the Department of Homeland Security requested the troops. She could not provide further details about where they were stationed, she said. The troops were mobilized under Title 32 status, according to the release. That

means they remain under Landry’scontrolbut that the federalgovernmentpays for the mobilization

“When the State of Louisiana andthe United States of Americaneedsus, we act.

TheSoldiers and Airmen of theLouisiana National Guard are trained professionals who embody the values of our military and understand what it means to protect the homeland,” Maj. Gen.ThomasFriloux,the adjutant general of Louisianaand head ofthe guard, said in astatement.

It’s thesecondtimeina month the state has mobilized the National Guardat theTrump administration’s request.Two weeks ago, Louisiana sent 135 soldiers to bolsterTrump’scontroversial intervention on crimeand illegal immigration in Washington, D.C.

There are now 140 Louisiana troops deployed there, accordingtoCollins. They join over 2,000 other National Guard membersfrom other states andthe District of Columbia.

Trump saystheir presence

is necessary to getcrime under control in the capital. Critics have described Trump’s actions, which face local pushback, as authoritarian.

Official data puts violent crime in Washington, D.C., at a30-year low

95 La.NationalGuard troops to help ICE

The news also comes days after Landry and top Trump administration officials unveileda newICE detention center on the grounds of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. They said thefacility, referred to as both

Camp 57 andthe Louisiana Lockup, will hold “the worst of the worst.” Eventually,Camp57will be abletoholdupto416 detainees, according to officials. Louisiana already has multiple ICE detention cen-

ters which, altogether, house about 7,000 immigrants, according to Bill Quigley,the formerdirector of the Law Clinic and the Gillis Long Poverty LawCenteratLoyola University in NewOrleans. Both Landry and Trump have described immigration enforcement as key to protecting the country from violent crime. Critics of thecrackdown sayICE is detaining people withno criminal records, sometimes without due process.

About 70% of those in ICE lockup have no criminal convictions, The Associated Press reported in July.Half of them have no pending criminal charges, according to the report. This summer,Congress passed legislation expanding ICE’sbudget by tenfold —anincreaseof$76.5 billion. The agency aimstohire 10,000 new deportation officers; it previously had 6,500. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Email Meghan Friedmann at meghan.friedmann@ theadvocate.com.

Ziziansmemberpleadsnot guilty in agent’sdeath

BY HOLLYRAMER

BURLINGTON, Vt. Amember of the cultlike Zizians groupaccused of killing aU.S. Border Patrolagent pleaded not guilty to murder and other charges Friday in her first court appearance since prosecutors said they will seek the deathpenalty against her Teresa Youngblut, 21, of Seattle, is among agroup of radical computer scientists focused on veganism, gender identityand artificial intelligencewho have been linked to six killings in three states. She is accused of fatally shooting agent David Maland in Vermont on Jan. 20, the same day President Donald Trump wasinauguratedand signed a sweeping executive order liftingthe moratorium on federal executions. Youngblut initiallywas charged with usingadeadly weapon against law enforcement and discharging afirearm during an assault witha

deadly weapon, crimes thatwere not punishablebythe deathpenalty. But theTrump administration signaled earlyonthatmoreserious charges were coming as part of its push for more federal executions, anda new indictment released lastmonth charged her with murder of afederal law enforcement agent, assaulting other agents with adeadly weapon andrelated firearms offenses Youngblut’sparents watched her enter thecourtroom,with her hair in braided pigtails and wearing baggy khaki pants, an oversized sweatshirt anda mask.Her mother smiled and waved to her as she waslater handcuffed and escorted out. At the timeofthe shooting, authorities had been watching Youngblut and her companion, Felix Bauckholt, for several daysafter aVermont hotel employee reported seeing them carrying guns andwearing black tactical gear.She is accused of openingfire onborderagents whopulled thecar overonInterstate91. An agent fired back, killing Bauckholt

and wounding Youngblut

The pair were among the followers of Jack LaSota, atransgender womanalsoknown as Zizwhose online writing attracted young, highly intelligent computer scientists who shared anarchistbeliefs. Members of the group have been tied to the death of one of their own during an attack on aCalifornia landlord in 2022, thelandlord’s subsequent killing earlier this year,and the deaths of one of themembers’ parents in Pennsylvania. LaSotaand twoothersface weapons and drug charges in Maryland, where they were arrested in February,while LaSota faces additional federalchargesofbeing an armed fugitive. Anothermember of the group who is charged withkilling the landlord in California hadapplied for amarriage license with Youngblut. Michelle Zajko, whoseparents were killed in Pennsylvania, was arrested withLaSota in Maryland, and hasbeen chargedwith providing weapons to Youngblut in Vermont

BY MEG JAMES Los Angeles Times (TNS)

Afederal judgehas rejected Newsmax’slawsuit alleging Fox News violated U.S. antitrust laws by squeezing out rival conservative newsnetworks.

U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon said she would give Newsmax ado-over.The Boca Raton, Fla.-based network has until Thursday to refile its lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch’smedia company and top-rated cable news network to comply with judicial style. In her two-page ruling on Friday,Cannon said Newsmax’slawyers inappropriately tried to build their case by stringing together allegations to compound their effect. Newsmaxsued Fox News and its parent Fox Corp. on Wednesday,accusing Murdoch’stelevision company of anticompetitive behavior to maintainits “unlawful monopolization of the right-leaning pay TV newsmarket.” Lawyers forNewsmax alleged Fox used its market clouttodiscouragepay-TV distributors from carrying or promoting Newsmax and other rival conservative news outlets. Newsmax claimedFox News resorts to intimidation campaigns, including by pressuring guests not to appear on Newsmax. Fox News scoffed at the allegations. “Newsmax cannot sue theirway outoftheir own competitive failures in the marketplace to chase headlinessimply because they can’tattract viewers,”the companysaidin astatement.

Investigationshows illegalvotinginLa.

Of 3M

statevoters, 79 noncitizens illegallyvoted since’80s

BY ALYSE PFEIL Staff writer

Of the almost 3million Louisiana residents registeredtovote, 390 noncitizens did so illegally and 79 of them actually voted in at least one election since the 1980s, Secretary of State Nancy Landry

said Thursday Landry acknowledged noncitizen voting in Louisianais“not a systemic problem.” Still, she said it’sa serious issue and that her officeplanstorefer noncitizens who voted to lawenforcementfor prosecution

“Voting is the greatest privilege

and responsibilityofeach Americancitizen. At itscoreisthe act of exercising political power,” Landry said at anews conference.

“It is acrime to register to vote andtovoteasanoncitizen, and it undermines the fundamental rightsofAmerican citizens.” The numbers of noncitizens who

voted illegally in Louisiana come from arecentinvestigation that compared Louisiana’scurrent voting rolls to aU.S. Department of Homeland Security database to which Louisiana officials were given access in May, Landry said.

With theexception of about 100,000 registered Louisiana voters, theinvestigation was able to compare almost allofthe state’s roughly 3million registered voters to the federal government’sSAVE database, asystem that tracks immigration andcitizenship status administered by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

‘Peoplemakinga difference’

BY JOANNA BROWN Staff writer

From arts education to afree tool rental library,these residents are makingadifferenceinLafayette in creative, meaningful ways. Thanks to AnnaKojevnikov andAllison Nederveld, the city is home to the “Lafayette Tool Library” —afree service where people can borrow,return andevenlearn to use the tools they need for repairtasks. Acadiana Center for theArts’ Bree Sargent has been aquiet force in Acadiana schools for 23 years, giving both students and teachers access to education-throughthe-arts that impactshow studentslearn, retain and use information Luis Mora founded the Asociación Cultural Latino-Acadiana morethan 20 years ago, after immigrating to Lafayettefrom Colombiainthe 1960s. TheACLA hosts Lafayette’sannualLatin Festival, an event that celebrates the joie de vivreto be found throughout both south Louisiana and Latin cultures. Last butnot least, MaisonFreetown founder Erica Melancon Fox knows that memory connects us all, no matter where we live. Lafayette’sfirst Black history museum shares the story and contributions of the people of Freetown —avibrant neighborhood that developed asa center of commerce, entertainment and artistry for Black andCreole residents of Lafayette.

These people andprojectswere celebrated Thursday night at theUndercurrent Awards,hosted by TheCurrentand CBSNews contributor David Begnaud, who is aLafayette native. All were presented with a2025 Wavemaker award for demonstrating their selflessness, creativity,vision and passion forLafayette

“Lafayette is the place that made me passionate about telling stories,” said Begnaud, on stage with thenight’shonorees.

“That’swhy Idothis,soIcan come back home and share these stories of people making adifference.”

Avideo showcasingeach honoreeand their projects was simulcast on Lafayette newsstations KLFY,KATCand KADN duringthe Undercurrent Awards event at the AcadianaCenter for the Arts on Thursday.AccordingtoBegnaud, it was the firsttimearea stations had

ä See AWARDS, page 2B

Fourth arrest made in child’s shooting

The Lafayette Police Department has made afourth arrest in connection with the shooting of a child on Aug. 24. On Thursday, with assistance from the U.S. Marshals Task Force, authorities apprehended 19-year-old Rickey Chaney, of Lafayette. He was arrested in Lake Charles on awarrant in connection with attempted second-degree murder Chaney was booked into the Calcasieu CorrectionalCenter

ABOVE: Bree Sargent, from left,Erica Melancon Fox, Luis Mora, Allison Nederveld and Anna Kojevnikovholdtheir 2025 Wavemaker awards at the Undercurrent Awards heldThursday at the Acadiana Center for the Arts in Lafayette.

LEFT: Peopleare seen at the Undercurrent Awards on Thursday.

PHOTOSPROVIDED By MATTHEW JOHNSON AND AARON DAVID

Supportsoughtfor concertgrant in Lafayette

Awardwould provide threeyears of live musicevents

BY JOANNA BROWN Staff writer

Music brings joy,connection and vibrancy to acommunity.That’s especiallytrue in Lafayette,a town that will take any excuse to host a partywith alive band.

From gatherings like Downtown Alive! to Festivals Acadiens et Creoles,which is celebratingits 51st year this October,outdoor eventsinLouisiana typically revolve around music— andnow, community members have the opportunity to vote to bringthree years of free music to Lafayette, featuringawide variety of genres andartists. The final public voting phase is open now forLafayette to receive thenational Levitt Music Series

Grant. If awarded, Lafayette would be grantedupto$120,000 over three years (at $40,000 per year), for thepurpose of hosting 10 outdoor concerts ayear in acommunityspace, beginning in 2026. Starting at noon Friday,the public can vote for Lafayette in the Levitt Music Series Grantonline at vote.levitt.org, or by texting LAFAYETTE to (877) 409-5525. Votingwill remainopenthrough

7p.m. Sept. 15. If Lafayetteisselected, theconcerts will be hosted at four outdoor community spaces:Brown Park, Girard Park, Moncus Park and Parc Sans Souci. Local partners in this initiative, including Lafayette Consolidated Government, Festivals Acadiens et Créoles, Moncus Park, Lafayette PARC, Downtown Lafayette and Lafayette Travel, emphasize that community participation is akey factor in the award. Grants will go to cities where community members show themost support forthe Levitt Music Series, via voting. This grant is supported by the Levitt Foundation, aprivate family foundationstarted in

in Connecticut. The foundationstates that it

to “strengthen the

cial fabric of America,” through activating underusedpublic spaces with free outdoor concerts. Email Joanna Brownatjoanna. brown@theadvocate.com.

Residentseye Smitty’s Supply cleanup

Questionsremain over pollution from oilplant fire

BY DAVID J. MITCHELL Staff writer

The swirling black oil and the overpowering smell of asphalt began appearing behind Scott Silva’shouse on the lower Tangipahoa River the night of Aug. 25, three days after Smitty’sSupply Inc. exploded and began burning for days.

Blobs of blackoil collecting in the river’scurve by his home have been aneardaily occurrence since then. Contaminants from the burning motor oil and lubricants plant have flowed down nearly the length of the river and past partof the sensitive Joyce Wildlife Management Area, despite miles of containment and absorbent boom.

Silvasaid he andhis wife bought the home in the relatively out-of-the-way spot eastofPonchatoula 21 years ago to enjoy the water and nature, but the contaminants that have followed Smitty’s explosion have clouded that vision of life.

“Wegot kayaks. Igot two boats, you know.Wegot fish, and now how long’sitgoing to be until we can use this?” the 53-year-old asked during an interview at his home Wednesday as faint oil blobs occasionally floated by “That basically just threw my plan out the window.”

The cause of the catastrophic fire near Roseland, miles north of the Silvas’ home remainsunder investigation. Containment and cleanup efforts continuein the meantime,and questions remain about the lasting environmental impact on the river and its wildlife.

No one was injured in the fire, though it forced a1-mile evacuation, dropped black soot on miles of homes and fields and has already triggered personal injury lawsuits and one planned citizen lawsuit by aLouisiana environmental group.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency staff and contractors have been monitoring the air,layingout in selected spots along 45 miles of river acombined 4.1 miles of containment boom andconductingoil skimming operations since afew days after the Aug. 22 fire.

EPAmaps from late last month show boom and contamination extend from Smitty’stothe northerntip of Joyce, though contamination has not reached Lake Pontchartrain, wherethe Tangipahoa empties Though state, local and companyofficialshaven’t reported publicly what was at the plant at the time of the

VOTERS

Continued from page1B

Landry said the Trump administration revamped and improved SAVE and made the federal data available to Louisiana at no cost, which was not the case previously The free and easier access has allowed Louisiana officials to compare state voter registration lists to federal SAVE data.

AWARDS

Continued from page1B

coordinated to simulcast an occasion like this, giving the Wavemakers and their work an even broader reach. It was an evening of inspiration and deep appreciation for the often unsung people making adifference for thousands across Acadiana. Begnaud pointedout that Lafayette lawyer Glenn Armentor is one of those people. His firm, The Glenn Armentor Law Corporation, is based in Freetown and is apresenting sponsor forthe Undercurrent Awards. Last month, Armentor

An orange containment boom and white absorbent boom snakeinparallel across the Tangipahoa River WednesdayatLees Landing as contractors in an airboat head into the nearbymarina. The boom has been stretched on dozensofmiles of the river from La. 10 to its mouth, and oily contaminants from the Smitty’sSupply Inc. fire started on Aug. 22 have made it close to the wildlife area in southernTangipahoa.

fire,ithoused 20 tankfarms with thecapacity to hold 8.7 milliongallonsofflammable liquids, like motor oil, and chemicals.

An EPAinteragencyreport on the spill fromlate August said some chemicals on-siteatthe time of the fire includednaphthalene, xylene, ethylene glycol and phosphoric acid in addition to firefighting foam containingPFAS, orso-called forever chemicals. Thereport does not say which, if any, of thechemicalsescaped Smitty’ssite.

‘Doing what they cando’

At Lees Landing, amarina andpublic boat launch on the lowerTangipahoaand near Joyce, contractors were busy keeping the skimming operations running late Wednesday morning.

AMarco skimmer arrived at the public launch and, once at dock, ES&H workers connected vacuum hoses linked to atanker and collected the oil held in the hull. The hose jerked back and forthwith the rhythm of its pump as the workers took abreak while still keeping an eye on it.

EPAofficialsonscene said theskimmers are making twotothree trips per day and each can return with 20 to 25 barrels of oil per trip.

Tomi Cox, 64,who livesat the marinaand helpsmanage it, said she had watched the crews work daily forapproaching two weeks.

“I mean, they’re doing what they cando,” Coxsaid “They’rehereat5:30-6inthe morning and they leave 6-6:30 in the evening.Theywork all day long.”

EPAofficialssaidtheir operations have collected 2.7 million gallons of material so far,enough to fill fourOlympic swimming pools. But EPA and stateofficials haven’tsaid when the collection operations will stop, whatexactly they are collecting, what es-

That cross-check thenallowsLouisianaelectionofficialsto, withthe helpofthe FBI, investigatethe citizenship status of registered voters flagged as noncitizens. The secretary of state’s office then issues anotice to those individuals indicating it has reason to believethe registered voter may notbe acitizen.The person has 21 days to respond with documentation of citizenship status. While elections officials

PROVIDED PHOTO By MATTHEW JOHNSON AND

caped from thesmoldering plant or what kind of wildlife impact has occurred, if any EPAofficials have saidtests on the contaminantsfound in the riverare pending. Withoutthatdata andinformationonmaterials thatwere at Smitty’sbefore thefire, one environmentaladvocatesaid, the spill’simpact remains unclear

“It’sreally hard for me to say because Idon’t have information on the constituents that wereleaked into the water,”said KristiTrail, executive director of the Pontchartrain Conservancy EPAalso hasn’tshared information about possible wildlifeimpacts,including whetherany animals have been oiled along the 45 to 50 miles of affected river. The agency referred wildlife questions to the state

Astate wildlife spokesman said Friday that aboom has been placed upstream of Lees Landing to protect Joyce’s nearly 42,300 acres of marsh and swamp.

StateDepartment of Wildlife and Fisheries officials are “coordinating with state and federal agencies for impacted wildlife reports” and urgedresidentstoreport affected wildlife at (337) 7358677, the spokesman said.

One deceased turtle has been collected so far Trail, whose group advocates for the health of Lakes Pontchartrain and Maurepas and the regional waterways that feed them, saidshe’s “frustratedbythe lack of information” about the river.

Cox, the Lees Landing manager,saidshe sawoil flowing down the riverfor afew days before the boom was in place, but hasn’t seen anyfish kills norheard of anyfromthe fishermenwho frequent the marina.Trail speculatedthe wildlife impactscould end up beingminimal becausethe contaminantsare likely to evaporateinthe heat.

have runcitizenship checks on essentially all currently registered Louisianavoters, Landrysaid the investigation processisongoing and doesn’thave an expected timeframe forcompletion. She called the findings announced Thursday “preliminaryresults.”

Louisiana will also check thecitizenship status of any newregisteredvoters, she said.

Once the investigation concludes,state elec-

theGlenn Armentor Parkinson’sProject, which will provide resources and support to people and families facing theneurological disorder

Begnaudclosedout the awards with around of applause forArmentor,his family and colleagues for “always fighting forthe underdog.” As audience members clapped and shouted their love for the longtime lawyer,Armentor shouted “I love you back” —afitting sentiment for an evening focused on celebrating difference makers.

from Aug. 26 where aturtle pokes its pointy nose above the waterline but just out of reach of an oilblob.

Silva saidhewonders if it’s safetohunt in Joyce or eat the catfish and perch that he hadbeen feeding behind his house forfouryears—species, he said, that are otherwise“good-eating” fish

“I mean, look howbeautiful this is,and whatare we going to do withthat?” he said.

Silva said Wednesday was thefirst daythatthe oilblobs hadeased some.

Often in major oiland other disasters, the “potentially responsible” company is directed to handle thecleanup and its cost under government supervision, butthe EPAhas taken the lead in this case.

On Thursday,the Louisi-

ana Environmental Action Network, an environmental group, issued arequired60day notice thatitplans to sue Smitty’sunder the Clean Water Actover thedischarges into the river.

Saying thesuit is aresponse to residents’ concerns, LEAN accusedSmitty’sofviolating its own plans to control spills andstormwater runoffas well as federal law

LEAN officials said the suit is designedtogiveresidents “a seat at the table” when decisions are made on response and cleanup.

“A citizen suit has nothing to do with recovering money for individual residents who were harmed or put at increased risk from the contamination,” the group added in astatement.

In response, Smitty’sofficials saidthey’ve been working closely with local, state andfederal agencies, including the EPA, “to support a safe, efficient and thorough response” and are committed to continuing thatwork.

“Throughoutour 55 yearsin business in TangipahoaParish, we have alwaysstrived to go about our daily work safely andaccording to all state andfederal regulations,” the company statement said.

TheEPA declined to comment on the lawsuit notice.

Over the longterm, Tangipahoa Parishand Southeastern Louisiana University have agreed to have the Hammond-based university monitor the riveralong with local firm ELOS, according to aparish spokeswoman ‘Whatare we goingtodo?’

Silva, who owns the riverside home, took daily videos of the blobs that passed his house and wonders about the effects.

The videos include one from Mondaywhere awater snake slithers through floating oily muck and another one

tions officials willrefer appropriatecases to law enforcement for prosecution,Landry said, including for bothstate and federal crimes.

“My office will be working with theappropriate author-

The interagency EPAreport saidthe agency had$6 million set aside forthe work and, in taking the lead, had transitioned away from the potentially responsible party because of “financial solvency issues.”

TheEPA is using Superfund dollars available under thefederalComprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act foremergency response, an agency spokeswoman said. Under thelaw,EPA can seek to recover itscosts later from “potentially responsible parties.” ASmitty’sspokesman didn’tdirectlyanswer aquestion about whetherthe company would pay forthe work.

“Weremain focused on working with the U.S. EPA and all other federal, state and local agencies on completingthe cleanupsafelyand efficiently,” thecompanysaid in astatement. Despitelayoffs andapparent“solvency” issues, Smitty’splans to rebuild and has hired the former DEQhead, Chuck Carr Brown, as its recovery consultant.

Brown, whohas years of private sector experience in industrial environmental management, was the DEQ secretary under Gov. John Bel Edwards formorethan sevenyears. Now asenior vice president at Gulf Engineersand Consultants, he oversawthe agency during aperiodwhenSmitty’shad aseries of spills into local ditches andponds.

Edwards’ DEQ reached two settlements costing Smitty’s $285,000, onereached under Brown, but the largest reached in the last weeks of Edwards’ secondtermafter Brown hadleft. Thatsecond deal was notformally completed until Gov.Jeff Landry took office, however

“Dr. Brown’sexperience andexpertise in environmental health and safety will be invaluable as the response andcleanupeffortcontinuesinthe comingdaysand weeks,”Smitty’s officials said in astatement.

itiesfor prosecution, andI will be encouraging those authoritiestofile charges in every single case that the lawallows,” she said.

Email Alyse Pfeil at alyse pfeil@theadvocate.com.

Continued from page1B

and is awaiting extradition to Lafayette. Thevictim, a6-year-old girl,remains in critical condition, authorities said Friday. She wasshotinthe 500 block of Saucier Parkway in north Lafayette while attending amemorial for another shooting victim. Upon arrival, officers located ajuvenile suffering from gunshot wounds. The child wastaken by ambulancetoa local hospital Thememorial was being held in memoryof36-yearoldPhillip Francis, who was fatally shotAug. 22 at theWoodSpring Suites Hotel in Lafayette. According to police, Francis was killed during an altercation with 39-year-old Kyle Jagneaux, aformer Lafayette police officer Three others —Kimmy RayDauntain Jr., Andrea Kentrell Willis and Daylon Andrus —havealready been arrested. Dauntain and Andrus face countsofattempted second-degree murder. Willis was arrested in Beaumont, Texas, and was awaiting extradition to Lafayette.

Carencro man held in death of woman St. Martin Parish sheriff’s deputies upgraded a count against aCarencro man after awoman he allegedly beat diedinthe hospital from injurieson Thursday Robert Lee Wiltz, 36, now faces onecount of seconddegree murder,according to the St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office. On Wednesday,Breaux Bridgepoliceand St.MartinParish deputiesrespondedaround2:05 p.m.to reports of an unresponsive female who wasdropped offatanemergency room with life-threatening injuries consistent with blunt force trauma. Authorities suspected Wiltz and arrested him the same dayataresidence in the 2600 block of Main HighwayinBreauxBridge. At the time, Wiltz was charged with attempted second-degree murderand obstruction of justice. On Thursday,law enforcement was informed thatthe victim, Amy Louviere, 40, of Breaux Bridge, died from her injuries Wiltz’schargeswere upgraded to second-degree murder Wiltz is being held at the St. Martin Parish Correctional Center.Hecurrently has no bond.

LOTTERY

THURSDAY, SEPT.4,2025

PICK 3: 5-5-1

PICK 4: 8-8-4-4

PICK 5: 7-9-0-3-5 Unofficial notification, keep your tickets

shared that he has Parkinson’sdisease. He also announced anew initiative,

Email Joanna Brown at joanna.brown@ theadvocate.com.

BRIEFS

FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

Raising Cane’s to open locations in the U.K. Chicken fingers and Texas toast are making their way to across the pond.

Raising Cane’s plans to open several restaurants in the United Kingdom over the next year, creating 700 jobs. The plan is to start off with restaurants in London areas such as Piccadilly Circus, Paddington, South Bank and off of the Strand and Oxford Circus, eventually expanding throughout England and the rest of the UK

Todd Graves, co-founder and CEO of Raising Cane’s, said the anticipated U.K. location was in high demand. Graves said he began searching for ideal locations in London and the rest of the U.K. a few years ago.

“It has always been a dream of mine to bring Cane’s to the U.K and I’m excited to officially kick off this growth with the opening of our U.K. flagship next year,” he said in a news release. “London is one of my favorite places, and I’ve always enjoyed visiting with my family.”

Raising Cane’s will build a regional support office in London, and the company is recruiting a president of the U.K. business and other executive leaders to helm operations.

Google hit with $3.5B fine in antitrust case

European Union regulators on Friday hit Google with a $3.5 billion fine for breaching the bloc’s competition rules by favoring its own digital advertising services, but the bloc’s latest move to crack down on Big Tech companies drew outrage from President Donald Trump. The European Commission, the 27-nation bloc’s executive branch and top antitrust enforcer, also ordered the U.S. tech giant to end its “self-preferencing practices” and stop “conflicts of interest” along the advertising technology supply chain.

It’s the fourth time Brussels has sanctioned Google with a multibillion-euro fine in an antitrust case, in a wider battle with regulators that dates back to 2017.

Trump said the EU fine was “effectively taking money that would otherwise go to American Investments and Jobs.”

“Very unfair, and the American Taxpayer will not stand for it!” he said in a post on Truth Social.

The commission said its investigation found that Google “abused its power” by favoring its own online display advertising technology services to the detriment of competitors, online advertisers and publishers.

Anthropic to settle suit over chatbot training NEW YORK Artificial intelligence company Anthropic has agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit by book authors who say the company took pirated copies of their works to train its chatbot.

The landmark settlement, if approved by a judge as soon as Monday, could mark a turning point in legal battles between AI companies and the writers, visual artists and other creative professionals who accuse them of copyright infringement.

The company has agreed to pay authors or publishers about $3,000 for each of an estimated 500,000 books covered by the settlement.

A trio of authors — thriller novelist Andrea Bartz and nonfiction writers Charles Graeber and Kirk Wallace Johnson — sued last year and now represent a broader group of writers and publishers whose books Anthropic downloaded to train its chatbot Claude.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup of San Francisco dealt the case a mixed ruling in June, finding that training AI chatbots on copyrighted books wasn’t illegal but that Anthropic wrongfully acquired millions of books through pirate websites. Books are known to be important sources of data that are needed to build the AI large language models behind chatbots.

Wall Street wobbles on job report

BY STAN CHOE Associated Press

NEW YORK U.S. stocks wobbled lower on Friday as Wall Street questioned whether the U.S. job market has slowed by just enough to get the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates to help the economy, or by so much that a downturn may be on the way

After rising to an early gain, the S&P 500 erased it and fell 0.3% below the all-time high it set the day

before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 220 points, or 0.5%, after swinging between an early gain of nearly 150 points and a loss of 400. The Nasdaq composite edged down by less than 0.1%

The action was more decisive in the bond market, where Treasury yields tumbled after a report from the Labor Department said U.S. employers hired fewer workers in August than economists expected

The disappointing numbers follow last month’s discouraging jobs

update, along with other lackluster reports in intervening weeks, and traders are now betting on a 100% probability that the Fed will cut its main interest rate at its next meeting on Sept. 17, according to data from CME Group. Investors love such cuts because they can give a kick-start to the economy, but the Fed has held off on them because they can also give inflation more fuel. So far this year, the Fed has been more worried about the potential of

inflation worsening because of President Donald Trump’s tariffs than about the job market. But Friday’s job numbers could push the Fed to consider cutting rates in two weeks by a steeper amount than usual, said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management.

“This week has been a story of a slowing labor market, and today’s data was the exclamation point,” according to Ellen Zentner, chief economic strategist for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.

Hiring stalls as reluctant employers are concerned with erratic economy

Labor Department reports fewer jobs than expected

BY PAUL WISEMAN, ANNE D’INNOCENZIO and CORA LEWIS AP business writers

WASHINGTON The American job market, a pillar of U.S. economic strength since the pandemic, is crumbling under the weight of President Donald Trump’s erratic economic policies.

Uncertain about where things are headed, companies have grown increasingly reluctant to hire, leaving agonized jobseekers unable to find work and weighing on consumers who account for 70% of all U.S. economic activity Their spending has been the engine behind the world’s biggest economy since the COVID-19 disruptions of 2020.

The Labor Department reported Friday that U.S. employers — companies, government agencies and nonprofits — added just 22,000 jobs last month, down from 79,000 in July and well below the 80,000 that economists had expected.

The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.3% last month, also worse than expected and the highest since 2021.

“U.S. labor market deterioration intensified in August,” Scott Anderson, chief U.S economist at BMO Capital Market, wrote in a commentary noting that hiring was “slumping dangerously close to stall speed. This raises the risk of a harder landing for consumer spending and the economy in the months ahead.”

Alexa Mamoulides, 27, was laid off in the spring from a job at a research publishing company and has been hunting for work ever since. She uses a spreadsheet to track her progress and said she’s applied for 111 positions and had 14 interviews but hasn’t landed a job yet.

“There have been a lot of ups and downs,” Mamoulides said. “At the beginning I wasn’t too stressed, but now that September is here, I’ve been wondering how much longer it will take. It’s validating that the numbers bear out my experience, but also discouraging.”

The U.S job market has lost momentum this year, partly because of the lingering effects of 11 interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve’s inflation fighters in 2022 and 2023.

But the hiring slump also reflects Trump’s policies, including his sweeping and everchanging tariffs on imports from almost every country on earth, a crackdown on illegal immigration and purges of the federal workforce.

Also contributing to the job market’s doldrums are an aging population and the threat that artificial intelligence poses to young, entry-level workers.

After revisions shaved 21,000 jobs off June and July payrolls, the U.S. economy is creating fewer than 75,000 jobs a month so far this year, less than half the 2024 average of 168,000 and not even a quarter of the 400,000 jobs added monthly in the hiring boom of 2021-23.

BY MICHELLE CHAPMAN and BERNARD CONDON AP business writers

The world’s richest man could become its first trillionaire if Elon Musk hits a series of extremely aggressive targets for his electric car company over the next decade, according to a proposed pay package released by the company But the payoff is in shares, not cash, and the goals are extreme as well. Musk overcame doubters

When the Labor Department put out a disappointing jobs report a month ago, an enraged Trump responded by firing the economist in charge of compiling the numbers and nominating a loyalist to replace her “The warning bell that rang in the labor market a month ago just got louder,” Olu Sonola, head of U.S. economic research at Fitch Rates, wrote in a commentary. “It’s hard to argue that tariff uncertainty isn’t a key driver of this weakness.”

Trump’s protectionist policies are meant to help American manufacturers. But factories shed 12,000 workers last month and 38,000 so far this year Many manufacturers are hurt, not helped, by Trump’s tariffs on steel, aluminum and other imported raw materials and components. Construction companies, which rely on immigrant workers vulnerable to stepped-up ICE raids under Trump, cut 7,000 jobs in August, the third straight drop. The sweeping tax-and-spending bill that Trump signed into

to turn Tesla into the world’s most valuable car company, but he could face even steeper odds in hitting the targets set by the company’s compensation committee — not least because of Tesla’s main business of making electric vehicles is currently in a slump, in part because of Musk’s foray into rightwing politics. “It doesn’t matter how

much money he gets He can’t help himself,” said Telemetry analyst Sam Abuelsamid who follows Tesla stock, which has plummeted 27% from its December high. “And the more he talks, the more he turns off potential customers.” To get his first package of shares equivalent to 1% of the company, Musk would have to convince investors in the stock market that

law July 4 delivered more money for immigration officers, making threats of a massive deportations more plausible.

The federal government, its workforce targeted by Trump and by billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, cut 15,000 jobs last month. Diane Swonk, chief economist at the tax and consulting firm KPMG, said the job market “will hit a cliff in October, when 151,000 federal workers who took buyouts will come off the payrolls.”

And any job gains made last month were remarkably narrow: Health care and social assistance companies — a category that spans hospital to day care centers added nearly 47,000 jobs in August and now account for 87% of the private-sector jobs created in 2025.

Economists are also beginning to worry that artificial intelligence is taking jobs that would otherwise have gone young or entry-level workers. In a report last month, researchers at Stanford University found “substantial declines in employment for early-career workers” ages 22-25 in fields most exposed to AI.

The unemployment rate for those ages 16 to 24 rose last month to 10.5%, the Labor Department reported Friday, the highest since April 2021.

Jobseeker Mamoulides is sure that competition from AI is one of the reasons she’s having trouble finding work. “I know at my previous company, they were really embracing AI and trying to integrate it as much as they could into people’s workflow,” she said. “They were getting lots of (Microsoft) ‘Copilot’ licenses for people to use. From that experience, I do think companies may be relying on AI more for entry-level roles.”

and

OPINION

ANOTHERVIEW

Have Democrats foundtheir newleader?

Ron Faucheux

California Gov.Gavin Newsom is emerging as thenew spokesman forthe Democratic Party.His sharp, relentless attacks on President Donald Trumpand Republican policies —especiallyoncongressional redistricting —are crisp and direct. Discardingthe worn slogansand measured responses of party leaders on Capitol Hill, Newsom is giving enraged andworried Democrats what theywant: abold battler who will fight back In recent weeks, the57-year-old Newsom has made numerous presidential-style speeches, going after Trumpwithhammer and tongs. On social media, Newsom and his supporters are running unconventional, even outlandish,memes andads thatuse Trump’sown tactics against him.

Pro-Newsom social media posts make funofTrump in ways we haven’tseen before. Some of them copy Trump’s unique style of attack, replicatingTrumpianlanguage (“Sad!”), misplaced CAPITAL lettering in tweets and more exclamation points than needed!!!Cartoonsportray Newsom as adynamic superhero, swooping in andrescuing the nation(including Trump’swife anddaughter)from MAGA control.

Some Democratic operatives fear Newsom’sapproach is politically risky,too cute byhalf. But pollsshowit’sworking.

During the first half of 2025, Newsompolled an average of 8% in multicandidatetrial heats forthe party’s2028 presidentialnomination,running third or fourth. Themost recent Emerson College poll shows amajor shift, with Newsom now running first amongDemocraticprimary voters with25%. That’snine pointsabove former TransportationSecretary Pete Buttigieg(who polls 16%) and 14 points above former Vice President Kamala Harris (who polls 11%).Other nomination prospects receive5%or less.

Over the past two months,Democratic votersupport for Newsom’snomination increased from6%to18% among those between 18 and 29 years old andwent from13% to 31% among those 70 and older.His vote ballooned among WhiteDemocrats, 10%to 24%,and Black Democrats,9% to 23%

Though Newsom’supswing ishappening mostly within the Democraticbase, it’salso strengthenedhis general election standing. In the July Emersonpoll, Vice President JD Vance led Newsom 45%to42%; in the August survey,they tied at 44% each.

The more recent Yahoo/YouGov poll showsNewsomdoing even better,beating Vance by eight points.

Keep in mind that Vance,Harris andButtigieghave already gained broad national recognitionfromtheir past runs for president or vice president andtheir servicein national government. Newsom has yetto hold or seek nationaloffice,althoughhe’swon 10 out of 10 elections in California.

Elected to the San Francisco board of supervisorsin 1998, Newsom was reelected twice. In office, he worked to shiftlocal social programsfrom “cash to care,” givingthe needy specific services in lieu of handouts. Though the initiative was opposed by progressives, it nonetheless passed and ended up saving taxpayers money

Newsom was elected mayor of San Franciscoin2003 with 53% of the vote, runningasapro-business Democrat, aliberal with pragmatic leanings. His slogan was “great cities,great ideas.” He had thesupport of Bill Clinton,Al Gore and MayorWillie Brown.Newsom’sopponent ran at him from the left.

Newsom was reelected mayor with72% in 2007. He planned to seek California’sgovernorship in 2010, but when former DemocraticGov.Jerry Brown enteredthe race,Newsom ran insteadfor lieutenantgovernor.He wonthe job by 11 points andwas reelected by 14 points In 2018, Newsom was elected governorwith 62% of the vote. Three years later,hebeat arecall effort, winning againwith62%. In 2022,hewas reelected with 59%. As astatewide official,Newsom has opposedcapital punishment and supported abortion rights, social justice initiatives, same-sex marriageand legalizing cannabis —typical foraliberal in ablue state.Aswith the other possible presidential contenders, Democrats and Republicans,Newsom’sideological slantwouldlikely help him win party primaries across the nation,but it mayhurt him in the general election.

Arecent Economist/YouGov survey showsNewsom’s rating among Democrats is arobust 63% favorable/15% unfavorable. However,his strength dissipatesamongall voters,when independentsand Republicansare included, pushing his rating down to 36% favorable/48% unfavorable.

Winorlose, like him or not,Newsomisalready making the 2028 race more interesting

Ron Faucheux is anonpartisan political analyst, pollsterand writer based in Louisiana.

Don’tlet politics undo the work that leveeboardsdid

We weredistressed to read the Aug. 8guest column by Blair duQuesnay of Citizens for 1Greater New Orleans exposing theshocking political meddling currently undermining the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East’s capacity to protect New Orleans from hurricane flooding. We arenow older and, perhaps, wiser coastal scientistswho still care about the future of New Orleans and the rest of coastal Louisiana. One of us, Ivor van Heerden, led the“Team Louisiana” investigation into the 2005 Katrina leveefailures,while theother, Paul Kemp, servedonthe east bank levee board under two governors from 2011 to 2018.

We well remember the panache withwhich Ruthie Frierson and her red-cladcadrenvaded our Louisiana Capitol in thedarkdays after the levees failed.

They made the case—like no one else could —that New Orleans deservedbetter science, engineering and oversight from thestate levee boards thathad given theU.S. Army

Corps of Engineers a40-year pass on the “never quite finished” flood defenses put in place after Hurricane Betsy And those intrepid women won! Until now,itseems. For almosttwo decades, bipartisan reforms consolidated three east bank New Orleans boards into one and requirednew board members nominatedbythe governor to meet specific qualifications judged by aselection committeedirected by Jay Lapeyre Jr., one of NewOrleans’ finest. We who servedonthis board knew that if we ever lostour focus, New Orleans could not survive to address the many seemingly more important problems and opportunitiesfaced in the city everyday DuQuesnay,chair of the Citizens for 1Greater NewOrleans, is as right today as Friersonwas 20 years ago. We had betterget this fixed fast. G. PAUL KEMP Baton Rouge IVOR VANHEERDEN Reedville, Virginia

Cassidyhas failed us time andtimeagain

“First,donoharm.” That is the core principle of the Hippocratic Oath, which every physician takes and agrees to abide by It highlights theimportance of physicians avoiding actions that could cause injury,pain or suffering.

U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy is aphysician, as he often reminds his constituency,and his election to the Senate does not change his obligations under theHippocratic Oath he took With this in mind, Iwould like to hear publicly from Cassidy as towhy he voted toconfirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr.assecretary of Health and Hu-

In reference to arecent letter thanking the zookeepers, Iwould like to offer the following: Ihave been avolunteer at the Audubon Species Survival Center for the past 12 years. Iknow firsthand the commitment of the staff at this location. Iamsure the staff throughout the Audubon family are as dedicated. Every morning, astaff meeting is held to discuss thestatusoftheir “precious babies.”All staff report the status of their animals.Each animal has aname, and treatment discus-

man Services andwhy he continues to support this administration which, among other things, has canceled hundreds of millions of dollars in grantsfor medical research, reduced critical scientific research staffand, in short, assaulted science, public healthand evidence-based medicine. If Cassidy cannot be relied on to live up to his obligations as adoctor his touted profession,how can he be trusted todowhat’sbest forthe good of the people he is supposed to represent?

STEPHENKUPPERMAN NewOrleans

sions are no different than if the care were for any person. Isee the real care that is afforded to these animals.Isee the joy when anewborn arrives and thetears when one in their care passes. It is very emotional in both cases. Ihope the community continues to support the Audubon facilities. If you could experience what Ihave over the past 12 years, it would be a no-brainer

MICHAEL RANSON Kenner

D.C.

farfromthe hellholeTrump makesit outtobe

We have just spent more than aweek in Washington, D.C. How lovely to have public transit at our disposal. We walked to ametro stop, passing Florida and New York avenues without fear.Wewalked up Connecticut Avenue, Wisconsin and the whole of Constitution Avenue without fear.Weate outside at The Big Bear Cafe without fear The zoo, no fear We wentfrom the McPherson metro stop on aseven-minute walktoThe Sage, unafraid. We walked to and from Trader Joe’sand Harris Teeter’sunafraid.

Like any big metropolitan area, one must always be aware. Sure, crime exists. However,itisn’tthe rampant, sordid den of thieves that President Donald Trumpistrying to distract the country from with his fear talk.

There were parents strolling their babies, fit young people jogging on the streets, every available food truck imaginable, traffic, professionals with briefcases, dog walkers, people pushing their portable grocery carts, tourists looking at their phones fordirections while pulling suitcases. People even walkdown the street talking on cellphones. What Trumpistelling you is not accurate. No surprise there.

SUSAN BENSINGER NewOrleans

Trumpalwayswants us watching him

Orwell’sdescription of our society in his novel “1984,” published morethan 75 years ago, has come to pass.

He’sonthe television news 24 hours aday.Heisrewriting history.Heisreorganizing every phase of our lives, etc. He never runs out of words. You can’tturn him off.

Donald TrumpisBig Brother!

ROBERT RADELAT Baton Rouge

GAMEDAY

SPE S TIGER STADIUM

College football has changed at an ever-quickening pace, spinning the mind thattriestograpple with every newfacet.

Come back to me, then, to rediscover why you fell in love withthis game.

IamTigerStadium. Ancient and eternal. And as Ibeginmysecond centuryonSaturday night with LSU hosting Louisiana Tech, letmeremind you what matters most.

NILdeals? Enormous TV contractsand coaches’buyouts?Conference realignment and something you call…a playoff?

Bah.Follies. Foibles.Fads.It’splaces like me that made this game great. And if youtruly love college football, you must make apilgrimage to visit me.

Football alwayswill change, and so have I, to apoint.Ashiny new scoreboard here, brighterlights there, more and fancier perches for the privileged to seeand be seen.

LSU GAMEDAY

BROADCAST INFORMATION

LSU vs. Louisiana Tech

6:30 p.m. Saturday, Tiger Stadium

TV: ESPN+/SECN+ | Line: LSU by 37½

Radio: WDGL-FM, 98.1; WWL-AM, 870; WWL-FM, 105.3; KLWB-FM, 103.7

RABALAIS

Continued from page 1C

In the end, I am still much the same. My history is recorded in my green grass, my roughhewn concrete, even in the smell of bourbon and sweat. My marching band’s base drum keeps time, but time for me is relative. It all compresses into one glorious sensory experience that delights and revitalizes year after year Within my walls, time slows. Stands still. And if you look hard enough, it even spins backward. I am a time portal to what was and what hopefully always will be.

Am I old? You bet. Older than that other stadium at Clemson that claims my nickname. I was born in 1924. That one came into being in 1942. A mere child. Which is the real Death Valley? My Tigers conquered theirs. Draw your own conclusions. Through the years I have become a happening, a place of worship on six or seven Saturdays each year, from the sticky heat of September to the brief flirtation of November’s autumn chill.

I am one with the night, and with the mighty Mississippi that courses past my sidelines, upon whose bottomland I dwell. You should have seen the faces of those sugar cane farmers across the river that evening way back in 1931 when my floodlights first cut through the darkness. They’d never seen such a wonder The ancient Roman coliseums are my elders. The nameless fields where children first played this football game with touch or flags are my kin. Some arenas are even older than me. A precious few are bigger

None are louder

I have seen a steady Mardi Gras parade of the great and would be great and never were greats pass through my portals.

There once was a Kingfish who thought he owned me, though he was really just renting.

I have seen a cannon streak past to glory like a Halloween ghost. I have shaken the earth. I have witnessed the improbable Ole Miss folks would say impossible — when two plays in the final four seconds in 1972 led my Tigers to victory You Rebels complain? Whose clock is it anyway?

STAFF PREDICTIONS

REED DARCEY

LSU 45, LOUISIANA TECH 7

Remember the Nicholls game last season? LSU led only 23-21 after two minutes had ticked off the third quarter. Brian Kelly wants this Week 2 matchup to have a different feel, and it looks like his team now has the talent and focus to make it happen The LSU starters build a large enough lead in the first half to sit the whole second half and watch some younger players get action

ZACH EWING

LSU 41, LOUISIANA TECH 13

Fueled by the home opener crowd, LSU will start fast and win this game easily; however, this is a classic letdown spot so expect a mid-game lull instead of total domination It would be good for the Tigers to see some consistent push from the offensive line in the running game. Get Caden Durham his third career 100-yard game, let the backups play and get to the Florida game healthy

New heroes find a home here. Joe. Jayden. The Honey Badger Old faces leave my stage, never to return. Cannon. Dietzel. McClendon. Even Bear Bryant. But they are never really gone. Remember what William Faulkner said: “The past is never dead. It isn’t even the past.” Here, in my giant bowl, on my field that another Mississippi writer Willie Morris described as a “terrain of old tumult,” the memories flood back every fall and mix with the new ones still to come.

The coach with the high white hat who used to graze on my blades of grass, I haven’t seen him for a while. Like him or mock him, he said something that has stuck with me: “Tiger Stadium is where opponents’ dreams come to die.” I like that. I like that very much.

But I am also perpetual life, a fountain of youth renewed every year by the players who run out of my tunnel and under my goalposts. The faces that fill my grandstands. How they marvel at my show

I have played host to Heisman winners and hopefuls. Presidents and evangelists. Singers and special athletes of other disciplines and abilities. I’ve even welcomed Taylor Swift

SCOTT RABALAIS

LSU 48, LOUISIANA TECH 13

The question “Will the Tigers win?” doesn’t apply this week. They will Handily. It’s been replaced by two questions: “Will the Tigers cover?” and “Will all three Weeks brothers play snaps together?” They do, and LSU doesn’t quite cover because Brian Kelly empties the bench late to play Zach Weeks and other newcomers in what amounts to a live-action workout for next week’s huge SEC opener with Florida

KOKI RILEY

LSU 49, LOUISIANA TECH 10

Garrett Nussmeier won’t need to play for more than a half Expect LSU to put up points early and often, and the defense to shut down a Louisiana Tech attack that went into halftime with just three points against Southeastern Louisiana last week More playing time for LSU’s younger players and improved continuity across the offensive line should be points of emphasis in this game

twice. If she evercomes back with her football fiancé in tow,Iwouldn’t mind adiscreetly scrawledautograph on oneofmywalls. As great as Iam, Ican still bea fan They say it never rains here on aSaturday night. We all know that’snot true.Opento the elements as Iam, Ican certainly attestto that. But it’sall part of my allure. My myth Iendure the weather and, I’mproud to say, am rather impervious to it.Lightning, floods, hurricanes, they may disrupt orpostponethe games. But there is always another season.If that constant brings you comfort,I can certainly give youthat. Iammany things. Amonolith. Amuseum. A haunted house. Alibrary full of thrilling moments and fantastic achievements. What Iam not is perfect. It willbehot Saturday.Itcan be cold. It can rain and blow.Myteamsoccasionally lose. Iwish Ihad more restrooms. Andit often seems like the undefeated championof them all is my pre- and postgame traffic. But Imake it all worth it.The chancetosee somethingyou’venever seen before.The delight at seeing againsomethingyou’vealways

cherished —like the band belting out those first four brassy notes of “Hold That Tiger.” Iamthe precious memories of afather and son. Of afirst dateora last embrace. Of friends tailgating on my grounds. Of fans tauntingGators and Bulldogs, Green Waves andCrimsonTides, then feeding them atasty plate and bidding them to come back soon. How long can Iendure? Another hundred years?Even longer? That’s not for me to say. Ionce heard of aplan about 40 years ago to replace me with somethinglike your Superdome,but that notion went nowhere. Sometimes,it’suseful to be apriceless work of art.

Let’sput it this way: As longasyou want to come back, Iwill be here. Agiant gray sentinel amid my oak trees and my river If you lose your way,just follow thelights, thesounds, the sights to my timeless spectacle. Youwon’tbedisappointed.

For more LSU sports updates, sign up for our newsletter at theadvocate.com/ lsunewsletter

Hester permanentlyreplaces

Moreau on radiobroadcasts

BY SCOTT RABALAIS Staff writer

One former LSU football great is replacing another on the school’s radio broadcasts.

LSU sports information director Michael Bonnette confirmedthat longtime color analyst Doug Moreau has stepped down from his role on the LSU radio team. His permanent replacement is former LSU fullback Jacob Hester, who hosts sports-talk shows locally onWNXX-FM104.5 and nationally on SiriusXM.

Hester,anall-SEC fullback forthe Tigers from 2004-07,filled in for Moreau during the 2024season as the latter stepped away from thebooth to recover from surgery.Hester called LSU’s17-10 win at Clemson lastSaturday

“Growing up, my family always hadthe radio on to hear Jim (Hawthorne, former play-by-play announcer) and Doug call LSU games,” Hester said Friday,“long before every game was on TV like it is now.That was ourconnection to Tiger Stadium, and it’s how so many of us fell in love with LSU football.

“Last year, Ihad the honor of filling in for Doug Moreau, and Inever imagined I’done day be stepping into the role ofreplacing alegend

Doug setthe standard for what this job should be,and I’ll alwaysbegrateful for the example he gave all of us. To now have theopportunity to join Chris (Blair, play-by-play announcer)permanently on the LSU Sports Radio Networkis truly special.”

An All-American tight end at LSU from 196365 who went on to play four seasonsfor theMiami Dolphins, Moreau calledLSU footballfor 46 seasons from 1972-81and againfrom 19882023. An assistant districtattorney,judge and districtattorney in Baton Rouge from 19742009, Moreau was color analyst on TigerVision, LSU’sin-house pay-per-viewbroadcasts, from 1982-87. Moreau’sformal departure is oneoftwo big changes for LSU footballthisseason.Last month, state Rep. DixonMcMakin of Baton Rougewas selected to succeed Dan Borneas Tiger Stadium’s public address announcer.McMakinbecomes just the fourthperson to do PA in Tiger Stadium since1955.

LSU baseball PA announcer Bill Franques filledinfor Borneduring the2024 season when thelatter took aleave of absence for healthreasons. Borne replaced Sid Crocker in thatrole in 1986.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

a.m. No. 20 Mississippi (1-0) at Kentucky (1-0), 2:30 p.m. No. 21 Alabama (0-1)vs. UL-Monroe (1-0), 6:45 p.m. No. 22 Tennessee (1-0)vs. ETSU (1-0), 2:30 p.m. No. 23 Indiana (1-0)vs. Kennesaw St. (0-1), 11 a.m. No. 24 TexasTech (1-0)vs. Kent St. (1-0), 11 a.m. No. 25 Utah (1-0) vs.Cal Poly (1-0), 5p.m.

EAST Uconn (1-0) at Syracuse (0-1), 11 a.m. Lincoln (Pa.) (0-0) at Duquesne (0-1), 11 a.m.

FIU (1-0) at Penn St. (1-0), 11 a.m. Cent. Michigan (1-0)atPittsburgh (1-0), 11 a.m.

Albany(NY) (0-1) at Delaware St. (0-1), noon Wagner (0-1) at Georgetown (1-0), noon Howard (1-0) at Temple (1-0), 1p.m.

St. Francis (Pa.) (0-1)atBuffalo(0-1), 2:30 p.m.

Miami (Ohio)(0-1) at Rutgers (1-0), 2:30 p.m.

UAB(1-0) at Navy (1-0), 2:30 p.m. Missouri St. (0-1)atMarshall(0-1), 5p.m.

Colgate(0-1) at Villanova (0-0), 5p.m. SOUTH Virginia (1-0) at NC State (1-0), 11 a.m. East TexasA&M (0-1)atFloridaSt. (1-0),

The Citadel (0-1)atSamford(0-1), 2:30 p.m.

South Florida (1-0)atFlorida(1-0), 3:15 p.m. JacksonSt. (1-0)atSouthernMiss. (0-1), 4p.m.

Houston Christian (1-0)atE.Kentucky (0-1), 5p.m.

Florida A&M (0-1)atFAU (0-1), 5p.m. Maine (0-1)atWilliam&Mary (0-1),5 p.m. Campbell (0-1)atEast Carolina(0-1), 5p.m.

Elizabeth City St. (0-0) at Hampton (0-1), 5p.m.

Warner University (0-0)atStetson (0-1),5 p.m.

Virginia St. (0-0)atNorfolkSt. (0-1), 5p.m. Richmond(0-1)atWofford(0-1), 5p.m. Davidson (0-1)atElon (0-1), 5p.m.

NC Central (1-1)atOld Dominion (0-1), 5p.m.

West Georgia (1-0) at Nicholls (1-1), 6p.m.

North Carolina (0-1)atCharlotte (0-1), 6p.m.

Memphis(1-0) at GeorgiaSt. (0-1), 6p.m.

Bethune-Cookman (0-1)atMiami (1-0),6 p.m.

SC State (1-0) at South Carolina(1-0), 6p.m.

NC A&T (0-1) at UCF (1-0), 6p.m.

Alcorn St. (0-1)atAlabama A&M (0-1),6p.m. Charleston Southern(0-1) at CoastalCarolina(0-1), 6:30 p.m.

Arizona St. (1-0)atMississippi St. (1-0), 6:30 p.m. Ball St. (0-1)atAuburn(1-0), 6:30 p.m. Vanderbilt (1-0)atVirginia Tech (0-1), 6:30 p.m.

MIDWEST

(1-0),4 p.m. Ark.-Pine Bluff (0-1)atCent. Arkansas (0-1),6 p.m. South Dakota (0-1)atLamar (0-1), 6p.m. Houston (1-0)atRice (1-0), 6p.m. Michigan (1-0)atOklahoma (1-0), 6:30 p.m. StephenF.Austin(0-1) at Abilene Christian (0-1),7 p.m. UT Martin (0-1)atUTEP(0-1),8 p.m.

Idaho St. (0-2)atNew Mexico (0-1),2 p.m. FresnoSt. (1-1)atOregon St. (0-1),2:30 p.m.

THENATION

THINGS TO WATCHINWEEK2

Who, what andwhere to keep an eyeoninthisweek’sgames around thenation

Powerhousesmeetinrareclash

No. 15 Michigan and No. 18 Oklahoma are twoofjust six programs that have wonatleast 950games. Michigan has wonthree national titles, and OU has wonseven But this Big Ten-SEC matchup is aboutthe present,and both teams are similarly positioned. The Wolverinesunderperformed with alethargic offense in Sherrone Moore’s first year OU beat Alabama but otherwise had arough entryinto the SEC. Both think theyhavethe quarterbacks —Bryce Underwood at Michigan andJohn Mateer at OU —toleadrevivals.

Gators must containrisingBulls Alex Golesh has been quietly building South Florida since 2023, when he took overa program thathad wonatotal of 15 games over five years. He put together back-to-back 7-6 seasons that ended with bowl wins and will go into Saturday’sgame at No. 13 Florida with adynamic quarterback in ByrumBrown, a retooled defense and the boost of confidence. Both teams will see abetter opponent on the other side of the ball after the Gators gotthree TDs fromDJLagwayina 55-0 blowout of Long Island

Home-pondadvantage Oregon quarterbackDante Moore completed 18 of 23 passes for 213 yardsand three touchdowns in the Ducks’ 59-13 opening rout of Montana State. He spread the ballaround, hitting 10 receivers. Oklahoma State, who is coming off a27-7 win over UT Martin, turns to Zane Flores, athird-year freshman QB,after starter Hauss Hejnybrokea bone in his left foot in the first quarter.Floresgets thedaunting task of making his first startagainstthe No. 6Ducks at Autzen Stadium,whichisknown for being loud and disruptivetovisiting teams.

—AssociatedPress

Sellingpoints

The Venture Global logo is being painted on the field at TigerStadium. LSU is among many SECschoolsseeking creativewaystogenerate fundsdue to newrules on revenue sharing with athletes.

PROVIDED PHOTO

On-fieldads make theirway to TigerStadium

BY KOKI RILEY Staff writer

For the past 100 seasons, there have been no advertisementsonthe playingsurfaceat Tiger Stadium.

NCAA rules forbade themfrom college football fields until last year,but Death Valley has also been afield steeped in tradition not corporate sponsorships.

Instead of every 10 yards being marked, it’severy five in Tiger Stadium. The white goalposts are athrowback to adifferent time. This year,the stadium will have just its fourth public address announcer since 1955. But even Death Valleycan’tescapethe ever-changing landscapeofcollege sports. For its 101st season, there will be an advertisement on the field at Tiger Stadium when LSU takes on Louisiana Tech in its home opener on Saturday(6:30 p.m., ESPN+/SEC Network+).

“Everything’sgoing to be tastefully done,” LSU deputy athletic director andchief marketing officer Clay Harris said. “Like,weunderstand how this works,and how weneed to have our LSU brand front andcenter.

Theadvertisement featured on thefield will be fromthe oiland liquifiednatural gascompanyVenture Global.Their brand willbeonboth25-yardlines, opposite the Southeastern Conferencelogo that’salready prominently placed on both 25-yard lines “Venture Global is honored to further strengthen our relationship with LSU athletics and the entire LSU community,” Venture Global CEO Mike Sabelsaidinastatement to The Advocate. “Weare proud to make history alongside LSU by supporting this iconic program and Tiger Stadium,whichholds a special place in the hearts of so manyLouisianans.

“As we continuetoinvest in Louisiana’s energy future, we are equally committedto supporting the state’straditions andstrong sense of community.GeauxTigers!”

The Venture Global advertisement will have white letters with agold outline. LSU made sure the company it decided to sell the ad space to fit its visual brand “Wewere very cognizantofwho the part-

ner was (and) what (thead) looks like. We kind ofhad theLSU brand front of mind on this,” Harris said. “Wewanted to make sure we didn’tlosethattraditional feel on Tiger Stadium.”

There will be no advertisements in theend zoneoratmidfield.Those will remain the same as they have been for years.

LSUhad “six to 12 highly interested partners” in acquiring the ad spaceonthe field, Harris said. LSU’sagreement withVenture Global is amulti-year deal thatwas finalized over thefirst few monthsof2025.

“They’re doing alot of business in Louisiana, on the(liquidnatural gas) side. They’re newtothe area, and they’re acurrentcorporate sponsor,”Harris said. “They started their partnership lastyear,and both sides sawanopportunity to elevate their brand throughout thestate andcity, and the best way to dothat was by having their logo prominently displayed on TigerStadium’s field.”

The NCAA didn’tapprove on-field advertising until last June, which wasn’tenough time for LSU to find asponsor lastseason. Ahandful of SEC schools had ads on their fieldayear ago —including Tennessee, Arkansas and Missouri —but thatnumber will increase substantially this season.

“Eleven (schools)will have it on their field in some way,shape or form this season,” Harris said. “Alabama, LSU, Tennessee, Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Imean, there’sa bunch.”

The sudden rush of schools across the conference adopting on-field advertising reflects alarger trend within college football. With revenuesharing— whichbegan in June and allows schools to directly pay athletes $20.5million per year —LSU and its competitors nationwide have been forced to find alternative revenue streams to make up for the extra money they aredishing out to athletes.

Placingadvertisementsonthe field is a part of offsetting that deficit

“We’ve got to change our mindset alittle bit onhow we’re generating revenue at this school,” Harris said. “It’s not just thefield logo. It’s, ‘How can we think differently? How canweget creative on ways where

we’re making money at LSU that we weren’t thinking before?’

Besides on-field advertising,LSU has expresseda strong interest in adding advertisement patches to its jerseys. The NCAA has not approved legislation that would allow schools to place adsonuniforms yet, but Harris believes it’s amatter of when, not if, that will happen.

“I don’tthink we’realone in getting preppedonwhenthatgetsannounced,” Harris said.

The school is also interested in further growing its revenuefrom hosting concerts and other external events. Extracting more money from thelicensingsideofits business has also becomeanemphasis.

“LSU is an extremely hot brand right now, andcollege sports is really clicking at ahigh level, on alot of eyeballs and things like that,” Harris said. “So we’ve gottocapitalize on that.”

LSU coach Brian Kelly understandsthe importance of these revenue changes. To stay competitive on the field,LSU must also staycompetitive off the fieldfrom afinancial standpoint.

Schools upending normstostayatthe forefront financially is atrend he’s noticed across the country

“With revenue sharing andall that goes with that, you’relooking for revenue streams,”Kelly said.“Iknowwhen Iwas at Notre Dame, theyhad, at that time, no advertising, and now they’re selling beer in thestadium.”

Harrisunderstands placing an ad on the field at TigerStadium wasnosmall move This was notadecisionhesaid was made lightly,especially given thehistory and tradition thatmake Death Valleyspecial for LSUfans.

“Tiger Stadium’sfieldissacred,” Harris said.“I’mbornand raised here,and I’ve been an LSU guy my whole life, so Iknow that more than anybody “(VentureGlobalis) theright prospect to put this on there,and we’re really excited. Ithink it’s all going to be apositive thing.”

Email Koki RileyatKoki.Riley@ theadvocate.com.

1 LSU

Record: 1-0 overall, 0-0 SEC

Previous rank: N/A

Last week: DefeatedClemson 17-10

Thisweek: vs.Louisiana Tech, 6:30 p.m. Saturday(ESPN+/SECNetwork+)

2 GEORGIA

Record: 1-0 overall, 0-0 SEC

Previous rank: N/A

Last week: DefeatedMarshall 45-7

Thisweek: vs.Austin Peay,2:30 p.m. Saturday(SECNetwork+)

3 TEXAS

Record: 0-1 overall, 0-0 SEC

Previous rank: N/A

Last week: Lost to Ohio State 14-7

Thisweek: vs.San Jose State,11a.m. Saturday(ABC)

4 FLORIDA

Record: 1-0 overall, 0-0 SEC

Previous rank: N/A

Last week: DefeatedLong Island 55-0

Thisweek: vs.South Florida, 3:15 p.m. Saturday(SECNetwork)

5 AUBURN

Record: 1-0 overall, 0-0 SEC

Previous rank: N/A

Last week: DefeatedBaylor 38-24

Thisweek: vs.Ball State,6:30 p.m. Saturday (ESPNU)

6 SOUTHCAROLINA

Record: 1-0 overall, 0-0 SEC

Previous rank: N/A

Last week: DefeatedVirginia Tech 24-11

Thisweek: vs.South Carolina State,6 p.m. Saturday(SECNetwork+)

7. TENNESSEE

Record: 1-0 overall, 0-0 SEC

Previous rank: N/A

Last week: DefeatedSyracuse 45-26

Thisweek: vs.ETSU,2:30 p.m. Saturday (SECNetwork+)

8 ALABAMA

Record: 0-1 overall, 0-0 SEC

Previous rank: N/A

Last week: Lost to Florida State 31-17

Thisweek: vs.UL-Monroe,6:45 p.m. Saturday(SECNetwork)

9 OKLAHOMA

Record: 1-0 overall, 0-0 SEC

Previous rank: N/A

Last week: DefeatedIllinois State 35-3

Thisweek: vs.Michigan, 6:30 p.m. Saturday (ABC)

10 TEXASA&M

Record: 1-0 overall, 0-0 SEC

Previous rank: N/A

Last week: DefeatedUTSA 42-24

Thisweek: vs.Utah State,11:45 a.m. Saturday(SECNetwork)

11. OLE MISS

Record: 1-0 overall, 0-0 SEC

Previous rank: N/A

Last week: DefeatedGeorgia State 63-7

Thisweek: at Kentucky,2:30 p.m. Saturday (ABC)

12 MISSOURI

Record: 1-0 overall, 0-0 SEC

Previous rank: N/A

Last week: DefeatedCentral Arkansas 61-6

Thisweek: vs.Kansas, 2:30 p.m. Saturday (ESPN2)

13 VANDERBILT

Record: 1-0 overall, 0-0 SEC

Previous rank: N/A

Last week: DefeatedCharleston Southern 45-3

Thisweek: at Virginia Tech, 6:30 p.m. Saturday(ACCNetwork)

14. ARKANSAS

Record: 1-0 overall, 0-0 SEC

Previous rank: N/A

Last week: DefeatedAlabama A&M 52-7

Thisweek: vs.Arkansas State,4 p.m. Saturday(SECNetwork+)

15. KENTUCKY

Record: 1-0 overall, 0-0 SEC

Previous rank: N/A

Last week: DefeatedToledo 24-16

Thisweek: vs.Ole Miss, 2:30 p.m. Saturday (ABC)

16. MISSISSIPPI STATE

Record: 1-0 overall, 0-0 SEC

Previous rank: N/A

Last week: DefeatedSouthern

Howard likely out forseason

Cajuns quarterback to havesurgery for undisclosedinjury

BY KEVIN FOOTE Staff writer

Walker Howard’schance to es-

tablish himself as acollege starting quarterback is on hold until next season, most likely Howard left last Saturday’sseason-opening loss to Rice after a25yard completion on the first play of UL’s final drive with astill undisclosed injury,but it is believed to be atorn oblique.

The former St. Thomas More star was set to have surgery Friday and won’tbeable to throw a football for the next 6-8 weeks.

On Monday,ULcoach Michael Desormeaux said Howard was struggling to walk in Sunday night’slight practice.

On Wednesday,Desormeaux declaredHoward would not play in the7 p.m. Saturday gameagainst McNeese. He also said Howard wasseeinga specialisttoget a second opinion.

In his firststart, Howard completed 10 of 22 passes for 88 yards and an interception.Healso gained 71 yards rushing on 11 carries, including a25-yard touchdown run. Howard appeared to suffer an injury in his hip area on afailed fourth-and-2 quarterback runon the final play of UL’s second-to-last drive. On the next possession,he didn’tget up after a25-yard completion to Shelton Sampsononthe first play

Redshirt freshman Daniel Beale will start Saturday’sgame. Sophomore Lunch Winfield will be the backup quarterback, but isexpected to see action in otherroles to take advantage of his runningability

After Levi Lewis made every start for four seasons withthe Cajuns from 2018-21, Desormeaux’s four seasons as coach have been plagued with quarterback injuries.

“You’ve heard me saythis before,it’sabroken record,” Desormeaux said Wednesday.“Unfortunately,four yearsinarow, we’re sitting here in the same position. Everyone’sgot to step their game up. We’ve got to play well around someone when they come in there, particularlymaking your first start. We needeveryone to play well around them —offense, defense, special teams.”

There’sonlyone

Saints legend discusseshis 428 teammatesduring 15-yearrun

BY LUKE JOHNSON Staff writer

There has been aJordan Miller,Jordan Mills, JordanMims, Jordan Howardand Jordan Howden —even one Lil’Jordan —but there has been only one Cam Jordan.

Therealsohas been aMcBride, aMcCain, aMcCown, aMcCoy,aMcDaniel, aMcDougle, aMcGlynn, aMcGovern, aMcKinstry,aMcManis and a McQuistan.

“So Ishould get invited to alot moreIrish parades in March,” Jordan said.

There have been two Browns, aGray,aGreen and

CamJordan

an Ivory There have been three Carrs, fourGrahams, five Davises and seven Johnsons —including apair of brothers, George and Juwan, whowere born nearly nine years apart. Their careers have spanned fourdecades of the NFL, with the oldest, John Kasay,having debuted in 1991.

There have been 44 players whoonly wore aNew Orleans Saints uniform for one game. And there are too manytocount whosuited up for training camp or the practice squad but never made it to an active game-day Saints roster

BY KEVIN FOOTE Staff writer

There was plentyofunknowns for UL coachMichael Desormeauxheading into the season opener against Rice. That isn’t thecase for the 7p.m. Saturday contestagainst the McNeeseState Cowboys at OurLadyofLourdes Stadium.

In hisfourth season as the coach of the Ragin’ Cajuns,Desormeaux never has faced anotherheadcoach he’s closer to than McNeese State coach Matt Viator Viator coached at McNeese in three different roles from 1999-2015 before becomingthe head coach at UL-Monroefrom 2016-20. From 2021-23, Viator worked at UL as an offensiveanalyst to keep hisconnection with football burning brightly

“One of the most important things that I was able to do was keep him here the first year,inparticular, thefirsttwo years, because obviously we had atall taskahead of us,” said Desormeaux, whotookoveras head coachin2022. At the time, Desormeaux was ayoung head coach with ahuge transition on his hands afterBilly Napierleftfor Florida afterthe 2021 Sun Belt titlecampaign. He needed asounding board and plentyofadvice Not only was Viator alongtime head coach but he also happened to coach quarterbacks just like Desormeaux did.

“For twoyears, we sat in the sameroom every day for Ican’teven tell you how many hours aday,” Desormeauxsaid. “Wehad a lotofclosed-door conversationsabout just alot of things, especially in those first two years.

“He wassomeone Irelied on really heavily.”

Abond was formed personally andprofessionally thatdidn’tend once Viator left the program.Desormeaux still praises Viator for the perspective he provided to ayoung head coach during the rough days.

“He kind of knows how to spin things,” Desormeaux said. “I think he’saphenomenal football coach andhe’sanelite human.” That feeling goes both ways.

“I can’t sayenough good things about Mike,” Viator said. “I think he’s aphenomenal head coach, and Itell anybody that asks me that. Ithink he works tremendously hard as acoach.

“Numbertwo, he hasa genuine carefor his players and he cares about his coaches. Thenthirdly,I just thought he was aphenomenal leader …he’sjust anaturalleader.”

Viator knows allabout the glory yearsof the UL-McNeese rivalry.Hegrew up in an era whenMcNeese people hated the Cajuns, and vice versa.

8:55

3:30

2p.m. PGATour:Stifel Charity Classic Golf

6p.m. Walker Cup: USA vs.GB&I Golf

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

Noon Toronto at N.y.yankeesMLBN

3p.m. PhiladelphiaatMiami MLBN

6p.m. San Francisco at

9p.m.Athletics

10:50

4p.m.U.S.vs. South Korea TNT WOMEN’S SOCCER

6:30 p.m.Utah at North Carolina ION

9p.m.Kansas City at BayFCION TENNIS

6p.m.WTA:U.S.Open ESPN

NewTEpropels Teurlingstoeasywin

BY KEVIN FOOTE Staff writer

Shortly after Michael Courville

was named the Teurlings Catholicfootball coach, oneofthe first players to meet with him wassenior A.J. Price.

Pricedidn’twin thestarting quarterback job as ajunior.All he knew is he wantedtoplay,but a move to tight end was complicated by abrokenfoot.

In Thursday’s48-12 win over Opelousas in the season opener, Price lookedlikehehas been playing his new position for his entire career “It was the first actual rep Ihad ever as areceiver,” Price said. “Wehad talked about it in the spring. Iknew Alex (Munoz) was our quarterback, and honestly,I just wanted to get on thefield. I knewIhad the size and speed for it.”

On the Rebels’ third play from scrimmage, Munoz connected with Price for 33 yards and a touchdown.

On the nextdrive, Price caught a43-yarder to the 10 to set upCason Evans’ 10-yard touchdown run. Price finished with four receptions for 88 yards and atouchdown.

“It was great,” Price said. “I was excited. We cameinprepared, and Iknew the game plan. We justexecuted.”

Since they have competed for playing time at quarterback since they were sophomores, Price said the connection with Munoz began back then while just tossing the ball to each other “Once Istarted, it just clicked,” Price said. Teurlingsscored five touchdowns on its firstsix possessions to build a34-12lead.

“He’smakinguslook smart,” Courville said of Price’smove to tight end. “They tried him on defense last year and it wasn’t

really afit. He had the body type (for tight end).He’saperfect fit. I’ve been super pleased with how physicalhe’sbeen.”

Munoz finished 8-of-13 passing with 171 yards and three touchdowns.AndrewViator hadtwo receptions for 71 yards and two touchdowns.

The first game under Courville couldn’thave gone much better for theRebels.

“There were some Week 1issues as far as communication and different things we can improve on, but wedidn’tget stoppedin the first half, so it’skind of hard to nitpick on that,” Courville said. The runninggame alsowas a

bright spot for the Rebels, who gained 291 yards on the ground.

Coming off aknee injury,Evans madeanencouraging return with eight carries for 71 yards and two scores.

EliDeBoisblanc added 58 yards on nine carries and Spencer Meche ran for 54 yards and atouchdown on eight attempts. HudsonClavelle pitchedin43 yards and ascore.

“I was really proudofSpencer Meche running theball,” Courville said. “And at the end, Hudson Clavelle was the kid who had never played football in his life.

“In his first game, he gets the touchdown. It was just aspecial

night all the wayaround.”

Skysuspends

Reese for one half over comments

Angel Reese was suspendedby the Chicago Sky for the first half of the team’s game against Las Vegas on Sunday for comments she made that were “detrimental to the team.”

The team announced the suspension Friday.Reese already is missing the team’sgameFriday night against Indiana because of amandatory one-gamesuspension by the WNBA for picking up her eighth technical foul of the season. The two-time All-Star voiced her frustrations with the franchise, tellingthe Chicago Tribune that she “might have to move in adifferent direction and do what’sbest for me” if the team doesn’timprove its outlook. After Wednesday’swin over Connecticut, she took back those comments andapologizedto the team. The Sky is 10-30.

Clippersinvite

NBA probe during Leonard deal fiasco Los Angeles Clippers owner

Steve Ballmer said in an interview with ESPN that he welcomes the NBA’s investigation into an alleged circumventionofleague salary cap rules, denying anyinvolvement in a$28 millionendorsement contract between Kawhi Leonard and aCalifornia-basedsustainability services company,Aspiration Fund Adviser LLC. In the interview,Balmermentionedhow he introduced Leonard to Aspiration. TheClippers stronglydenied any rules were broken in astatement issued on Wednesday after the NBA announced its investigation following areportbyjournalist Pablo Torre. Ballmersaidhe’d want the NBA to probe anotherclub if it were accusedofthe same violation.

Twinsreactivate

López after shoulder strain

Evangel Christian Academy32 Opelousas Catholic 14, Iota 7 Pine 37, St. Thomas Aquinas 14 St. Charles Catholic 36, Newman 3 Teurlings Catholic 48, Opelousas 12 University 49, Woodlawn(BR) 8 West Monroe 41, Huntington 18 Westgate 28, Lake CharlesCollege Prep20 Westlake34, Rosepine0 Westminster Christian (LAF) 26, Albany16 Wossman 36, Bastrop 6

Alcarazhandles ‘gassedout’Djokovicinsemis

BY HOWARD FENDRICH AP tennis writer

NEW YORK CarlosAlcaraz used his youth, athleticism and creativity to assert himselfagainst the much more accomplished,but also much older,Novak Djokovic and beat the 24-time major champion 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-2at the U.S. Open on Friday for aberth in his third consecutive Grand Slam final. By the end, Djokovicwas “gassed out,” as he described it afterward, and seemed resigned to the result. The 38-year-old from Serbia reached the semifinals at all four Slams this season but exited in that round each time, three via losses to No. 2Alcaraz, 22, or No. 1Jannik Sinner,24.

“It’sfrustrating on the court when you are not able to keep up with that level physically, but at the same time, it’ssomethingalso expected, Iguess,” Djokovic said. “Itcomes with time and with age.” Alcaraz will face either defending champion Sinner or No. 25 Felix Auger-Aliassime for the championship on Sunday,when President Donald Trump plans to attend.

Sinner could become the first repeat men’schampioninNew York since RogerFedererwon the hard-court tournament five years in arow from 2004 through2008.

Alcaraz is seeking his sixth major title and second at Flushing Meadows. He defeated Sinner at the French Open in Juneand lost to his rival at Wimbledon in July.

Djokovic’sbid to become the first player in the sport’shistory to get SlamNo. 25 wasblocked again, and he thinkspart of the issue is trying to overcome much younger men in best-of-five set matches.

“I still want to play (a) full Grand Slam season next year, Djokovic said. “Let’ssee whether that’sgoing to happen or not, but Slams are Slams. They arejust different from any other tournament. They are the pillars of our

sport, the most important tournaments wehave. But Idofancy my chances abit more in best-ofthree.”

Alcaraz and Sinner have combinedtocollect the past seven majorchampionships andnineof the last 12. Djokovic won the other threein that span,most recently at the2023 U.S.Open.

Djokovic’sshotswerenot quite on-target early and, but for abrief interlude inthe second set, his usual vervewas not present. He rolled his eyes after one miss, grimaced after another.Atchangeovers, he flexedorstretchedhis neck, which bothered him earlier in the tournament, and also was looked at by atrainer

There also was the occasional bitofbrilliance, including atwohandedbackhand passing shot that drewraucousroars from the crowd,which often cried outhis nickname, “No-le!”and seemed to want to will him to at least make things more competitive, if not win. Djokoviccelebrated by strutting to his towel boxwhile shaking his righthand over andover, as though tosay,“Hoo-boy! How nice was that?”

Djokovic even managed to steal oneofAlcaraz’s servicegames while takinga3-0 lead in the secondset. Mightthis portend along, tightmatch?

Nope. Alcaraz immediately snapped to, taking the nextthree games, includingone scooped cross-court forehand passing winner that was so superbeven Djokovic feltcompelled to applaud with hisracket.

Alcaraz never faced another break point. That’squite an accomplishment.AsAlcaraz said shortly before completing the walkfrom the locker room to the Ashe court: “Now Iamfacing one of thebest returnersever, if not thebest.”

Alcaraz finished with30unforced errors, thesame totalashis opponent.But the performance was more than good enough. “Today,I’d say,itwasn’tthe best

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By KIRSTy WIGGLESWORTH

Carlos Alcaraz, of Spain, reacts after winning agame against Novak Djokovic, of Serbia,during the men’s singles semifinalsofthe U.S. Open on Friday in Newyork.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOByyUKIIWAMURA

NovakDjokovic, of Serbia,returns ashot to Carlos Alcaraz, of Spain, duringthe men’s singlessemifinals of theU.S.OpenonFridayinNew york.

level of the tournament for me,” Alcaraz said, “but Ijust kept a cool level (from) the beginning until thelast point.” He was wearing apink, sleeveless shirt and now sporting nearly afull head of hair less than two weeks after showing up for his first-round match with abuzz cut he saidwas necessary when his brother tried to give him acut but messed up.

Maybe the decisiontoenjoy some down time Wednesday helped Alcaraz. He played golf with2017 Masterschampion Sergio Garcia, who was in afront-row seat across from thechairumpire Friday Apparently,Alcaraz and his partner came outonthe winning end on the links, too, saying of Garcia: “He owes me $200 right now.”

TheMinnesota Twinsreturned right-handedpitcher Pablo López from hisrehab assignmentand reinstated him from the 60-day injured list on Friday,sending him to the mound to start athree-game seriesagainst the Kansas City Royals.

López missed three months with astrain of the teres major muscle in his throwing shoulder after experiencing discomfort during his last start forthe Twins on June 3. The 2023 All-Star made three rehabstartsfor Triple-A St.Paul, posting a3.18 ERA in 111/3 innings. Before the injury,López was5-3 with a2.82 ERA in 11 starts with a .225 opponent batting average for the Twins. Their season fell apart shortly after he wassidelined.

Mets send down Senga, activate Alvarez from IL

Struggling pitcher Kodai Senga has been optioned to Triple-A Syracuse by the New York Mets, who also reinstatedcatcher Francisco Alvarez from the 10-day injured list on Friday

The team announced the moves hours before the opener of acritical three-gameseries at Cincinnati. Brandon Sproat, one of NewYork’s top pitching prospects, is expected to be called up from Syracuse to start theseries finale Sundayin Senga’splace.

Senga, an All-Star in 2023 and runner-up for NL Rookie of the Year,was the Mets’ best starter early this season —though largely ineffective sincereturning froma hamstring injury in mid-July. The 32-year-old right-hander is 7-6 with a3.02 ERA in 22 outings overall.

Lagergrenshoots a62, stays in front of McIlroy

Rory McIlroy hit abogey-free 6-under 66 to move into contention after the second round of the Irish Open, where Joakim Lagergren of Sweden leads after a62onFriday McIlroy jumped into ashare of thirdplace after making six birdies at The KClub.

The world No. 2will have to reel in Lagergren, wholed on 12-under par after 36 holes,and Adrien Saddier of France, who addeda 66 to an opening 67 andwas onestroke back. The 33-year-old Lagergren has history at The KClub. Last year,when playing the Irish Challenge here on theadjoining Palmer South Course,heshot a course-record 63 and then holed outfromabunkertomakeeagle on the 72nd hole and earn aonestroke victory

League smarting from roughweek

BY KEVIN FOOTE Staff writer

Thetruthofthe matter is it wasn’tavery good week for the Sun Belt Conference. There weren’tany big upset wins like in past seasons, and there was ahandful of disappointingperformances.

This is thethird anniversary of that spectacular 2022 weekend when Texas A&M, Notre Dame and Nebraska all fell to Sun Belt squads.

The most impressive Week 1effort was turned in by Appalachian State.Certainly there were teams like James Madison, TexasState and Arkansas State who enjoyed some runaway victories, but the Mountaineersanswered many preseason questions with an explosive offensiveopener

But there were toomany duds last weekend. Let’ssee if the Sun Belt rebounds this week

1. JamesMadison

Records: 1-0overall, 0-0 Sun Belt

Previous rank: 1

Last week: Defeated Weber State 45-10

This week: at Louisville,Friday (n).

Extra points: Louisville is amuch more tellinggame aboutthe strength of the Dukes. James Madison rolled lastweek. The Dukes limited Weber Stateto148 total yards

2. TexasState

Records: 1-0overall, 0-0 Sun Belt

Previous rank: 4

Last week: Defeated Eastern Michigan52-27.

This week: at UTSA,2:30 p.m. Saturday (ESPN+)

UL 23,MCNEESE 13: This matchup gotveryinteresting with thenews that starting quarterbackWalker Howard won’tbeavailable.The pressure is on redshirt freshman backup Daniel Beale, butatleast he’s hadaweektoprepare.Coach Matt Viator will have hisCowboys ready, andheknowshow Michael Desormeaux thinks more than any opposing coach. TheULdefense should be enough to stabilize things forthe offense. Awin over McNeese is mandatory.

KevinFoote

Extrapoints: While many teams aroundthe country struggled on offense lastweek, theBobcats had no trouble moving the ball. Texas State outgained Eastern Michigan 606-391 with30first downs.This week it’sgoing to be morelike abackyard rivalry against the Roadrunners, wholosttoTexas A&M 42-24. UTSA running back Robert Henryhad 117 yards rushinglast week

3. Arkansas State

Records: 1-0overall, 0-0 Sun Belt

Previous rank: 5

Last week: Defeated SE Missouri St.42-24

This week: at Arkansas, 4p.m. Saturday (ESPN+)

Extra points: Speaking of neighborhood rivalries, thefirstever meeting between the Red Wolves andRazorbacks shouldbefun.Arkansas State got abig first game from quarterback JaylenRaynor with 345 yards passing and three touchdowns in the opener.The RazorbacksbeatAlabama A&M52-7, so the Red Wolves will get much more of atest this week in search of theprogram’sfirst win over an SECschool.

4. AppalachianState

Records: 1-0overall, 0-0 Sun Belt

Previous rank: 10

Last week: Defeated Charlotte 3411

Thisweek: vs. Lindenwood, 2:30 p.m. Saturday (ESPN+).

Extrapoints: It wasn’tthe opponent that made the Mountaineers’ openingwin so impressive; it was themethod of victory.With new coach Dowell Loggains introducinghis system, there was aton of mystery in what to expect from App State. Well, LSUtransfer QB AJ Swann threw for368 yards andthree scores;running back Rashod Dubinionran for 111 yards and ascore; and receiver Jaden Barnes caught sixpasses for 134 yardsand atouchdown.

5. UL

Records: 0-1overall, 0-0 Sun Belt

Previous rank: 2

FRIENDS

His father,Nolan, is in the McNeese Hall of Fame as aplayer and former coach in Lake Charles.

McNeese leads the all-time series20-16-2. The last winfor the Cowboys was 38-17 in 2007, and thelast UL win was 30-22 in 2016.

Despite the rivalry,Viator also knows that UL “was the first one” to help McNeese’sprogram after HurricaneLaura in 2020.

“That was an awesome move on theirpartand Ivery,verymuch appreciated that,” he said.

Last week: LosttoRice 14-12

Thisweek: vs. McNeese State, 7p.m. Saturday (ESPN+)

Extrapoints: There was aton of unanswered questions for the Cajuns after theopener. The UL passing game struggled mightily withmany drops and even fewer open receivers. Even worse, startingquarterback Walker Howard suffered an injury on the final drive and is likely done for the season. Another loss would drop theCajuns mightily.We’ll see if theoffense can improve.

6. Troy

Records: 1-0overall, 0-0 Sun Belt

Previous rank: 11

Last week: Defeated Nicholls 38-20

This week: at Clemson,2:30 p.m. Saturday (ACC)

Extrapoints: The Trojans were on the verge of arough loss in the opener when they exploded for 28 points in the fourthquarter. Troy steps up in abig way at Clemson this week. Troy running back Tae Meadows had186 yards rushing and ascore, and quarterback Goose Crowder passedfor 144 yards and threescores and ran for 43 more and atouchdown. Defensively,Troy limited Nicholls to 249 total yards.

7. OldDominion

Records: 0-1overall, 0-0 Sun Belt

Previous rank: 6

Last week: LosttoIndiana 27-14

This week: vs.North Carolina Central, 5p.m. Saturday (ESPN+)

Extrapoints: TheMonarchs competedpretty well at Indiana last week, but theHoosiers put up 502 total yards to 314 for the Monarchs. ODU quarterback Colton Joseph threw for only 96 yards on 50% passing, but he did rush for 179 yards and twotouchdowns With avery different kind of matchup this week, we’ll find out moreabout ODU.

8. GeorgiaSouthern

Records: 0-1overall, 0-0 Sun Belt

Previous rank: 3

Last week: Lost to Fresno State 42-14

Thisweek: At USC, 6:30 p.m. Sat-

Viator also felt gratitudewhen theULcoaching staff and administration recruited him to become amember of the Cajuns staff.

“The waytheyreached outto me,‘Man, we would love you to come here andbea part of this program’ …Ican’texpress enough thanksfor thoseguys,” he said.

When the twofriends’ teams square off Saturday evening, it’s hard to imagine anything happening football-wise that thetwo didn’tdiscuss during Viator’stime in Lafayette. “I don’tthink there’sgoing to be awhole lot of secrets out there,” Desormeauxsaid. “We’re both

urday (FS1)

Extrapoints: When Ifirst heard aboutGeorgia Southern opening with atwo-game West Coast road trip, my first thought was, “Why would you do that to yourself?”

TheEagles might have likedthe decision while up 14-13 at halftime on Fresno, but things went southina hurry. Nowit’stime to play USCaftergivingup351 yards rushing and 527 total yards in the opener

9. Southern Miss

Records: 0-1 overall, 0-0 Sun Belt

Previous rank: 8

Last week: Lost to Mississippi State34-17

This week: vs. Jackson State, 4p.m. Saturday (ESPN+)

Extrapoints: Astate showdownofa very different kind for the Eagles, who started strong before losing by 17 points againstthe Bulldogs last week.Quarterback Braylon Braxton showed his potential in the loss by going 26-of-32 passing for 199 yards and two scores while also rushing for 58 yards. Southern Miss looked nothing like the 1-11 squad from ayear ago.

10.UL-Monroe

Records: 1-0 overall, 0-0 Sun Belt

Previous rank: 12

Last week: Beat St. Francis 29-0

This week: at Alabama, 6:45 p.m Saturday (SEC)

Extrapoints: The Warhawks are coming off their first shutout since 2015, andthe CrimsonTide is reeling from its first loss in aseason opener since2001. UL-Monroe doeshave that win over Alabama in 2007. UL-Monroerushed for 311 yardslast week after losing its best runner to thetransfer portal.

11.South Alabama

Records: 1-0 overall, 0-0 Sun Belt

Previous rank: 7

Last week: Beat Morgan State 3821

This week: vs. Tulane, 6p.m. Saturday (ESPN+)

going to trytoestablish the run, which is important to both of us. We’re going to trytoget theballin theplaymakers’hands to getthe quarterback in arhythm.”

That’ll be especially important for theCajuns, whowill start redshirtfreshmanDanielBeale for the first time after WalkerHoward had surgery Thursday and is expected to miss the rest of the season.

“I was apart of the recruiting process forDaniel Beale andfor Lunch Winfield, so youknowwhen those two guys come in the game, they’re going to be really talented football playersaswell,”Viator said.

Extrapoints: The Jaguars did win their first game, unlike seven Sun Belt teams last week,but the numbers weren’tkind. South Alabama led in first downs 19-17 and total yards 367-346 against its FCS opponent.It’shard to imagine that transferringwelltothisweekend’shome showdownagainst a Tulane squad coming off an easy winover Northwestern.

12.Coastal Carolina

Records: 0-1overall, 0-0 Sun Belt

Previous rank: 9

Last week: Lost to Virginia 48-7

This week: vs.CharlestonSouthern, 6:30 p.m.Saturday (ESPN+)

Extrapoints: It’s one thing losing to aPower Fourschool,but the Chanticleers didn’t compete well at allagainst Virginia.The Cavaliersoutgained Coastal 454-254 and led 28-0 at halftime. CharlestonSouthern lost 45-3 to Vanderbilt last weekand is coming offa 1-11 season, so we might not get a true read on Coastal for another weekorso.

13.Marshall

Records: 0-1overall, 0-0 Sun Belt

Previous rank: 14

Last week: Lost to Georgia 45-7

This week: vs. Missouri State, 5p.m. Saturday (ESPN+) Extrapoints: At least Marshall covered the spread in its 38-point loss to Georgia. Marshall played three quarterbacks and wasoutgained 488-207, so it’shard to know much aboutit. Missouri State lost at USC 73-13 last week after going 8-3 last season.

14.Georgia State

Records: 0-1overall, 0-0 Sun Belt

Previous rank: 13

Last week: Lost to Ole Miss 63-7

This week: vs. Memphis, 6p.m.Saturday (ESPN+) Extra points: The Panthers played twoquarterbacksinChristian Veilleux and Cameran Brown duringthe blowoutlosstoOle Miss It’s hard to know what to makeof anyofit, but it’s also difficultto rankany team giving up 34 first downs and 695 total yards anywhere but last fornow

The Cowboys got avery encouraging first gamefrom Texas Tech transfer quarterbackJakeStrong, whowas 22-of-28passing for329 yards and three touchdowns in a 54-9 winover Louisiana Christian on Saturday

“We’ll have to deal with those guys fromthe defensive side,” Viator said. “The first thing that jumps outtomeistheyhavetwo legit edge rushers in CamWhitfield and Jordan Lawson. “A fewyears ago, CamWhitfield just took over our whole game against South Alabama.”

Email KevinFoote at kfoote@ theadvocate.com.

Olderfolks, avoid the ‘backinmy day’ lectureto youngpeople

I’m writing this from my balcony,overlooking alarge pond with abeautiful threepart fountain. I’ve become bougie. Igrew up in ahouse with wheels. Look at me now

I’m not acomplete sellout. I’m sitting on aroyal blue camping rocking chair.It doesn’tmatch the much more expensive outdoor furniture of my neighbors, but Ican still feel the comfortable nostalgia of childhood trailer trash while sitting on my posh waterfront balcony

As Isit here,Iwatch the neighborhood kids zoom by on allmodes of transportation Tricked out trucks, electric bikes, dirt bikes, scooters, “golf” cartsand Segways fly by at speeds that would shame my childhood BMX suffering under the load of too many fried bologna andegg sandwiches.

“They’re going too fast They’ll get hurt, just wait,” I’ll grumble, while my wife and sons chuckle and smirk at each other in agreement that I’m becoming abit curmudgeonly Iwant to offer them advice You’d think that for apsychotherapist, I’d have my fill of doling out advice. But acounselor’srole isn’ttotellpeople what to do. Our job is to helpthem figure out what they can and should do, access the required motivation, and find the necessary resources to carry it out That’smuch harder than giving advice.

Also, advice is atricky thing. I’ve found most people wantto be the expert on their own life, especiallyadolescents. Becomingindependent from needing adult input is anormal and healthy part of growing up. Accepting adult advice makes the adult “right,” and the teendesperately wants, and even needs to be, “right” at times

As acounselor and parent (and husband, to be honest), I’ve learned it’smore effective to ask, “Would you be interested in my input on this?” Often, they’ll say yes.Sometimes, they really listen. Iknow the difference.

The differenceismeasured by the amount of what Icall “parent crack” we get. It’s when our kid immediately seems to get what we’re saying. The light bulb goes off in their heads, and they lookatus like we’re Yoda.

That’saunicorn. That may happen in their 20s,but not likely sooner It’snatural to want your children to avoid the same mistakes you made. It’ssensible to want to protect them from hurt you know might happen if they speed down certain paths. And it is perfectly normal and good to want to pass on your wisdom.

Yetweoften relytoo much on our words to guide others and far underestimate the value of our example, both good and bad.

ä See ADVICE, page 10C

Melissa Alvarez puts a book back on the shelf while browsing with her husbandNicolas Alvarez at the 2024 Louisiana Book Festival in Baton Rouge.

Making a difference

Alasting legacy brings anew mental health counselortothe Golden Band from Tigerland

BY MARGARETDELANEY Staff writer

Matthew Bahlingerwas a saxophone player and mechanical engineering major on the Tiger Band. He spent two football seasons donning thepurpleand gold regaliaofThe Golden Band and marching alongside his bandmates in feather caps. According to his family, Matthew Bahlinger received treatmentfor depression throughout high school, buthehad adifficult time finding services at LSU.

“He neededmore help,” said AliceBahlinger,his mother Matthew Bahlinger,whose dry wit and strong moral character endeared himtoall he met, lost his battle with depression in February 2022 at the age of 24.

According to the American Psychiatric Association, 1inevery 6people will experience depression at some time in life. Initially, it often affects people in theirlate teens to mid-20s

Eric Lau, deanofthe College of Music &Dramatic Arts, thanks Aliceand Gerald Bahlinger for Matt’sDinner,a fundraiser to advocate formental health awareness among collegestudents. Theyorganized the event in memoryoftheir son Matthew.

With thatthought in mind, as well as their other children attending LSUasmembers of theTiger Band, the Bahlinger family madeittheir life’smission to raise awareness and assist those struggling with mental healthissues —allowing Matthew

Bahlinger’slegacy to live on.

‘Wewantstudentsto… thrive’

For the last three years, the family has hosted dinners and lunches

ä See LEGACY, page 10C

LouisianaBookFestivalannounces participatingauthors

Staff report

As fall approaches, book lovers prepare for the ultimate Saturday,the LouisianaBook Festival. This year’sfestival will take place from 9a.m. to 4p.m. on Nov.1 in downtown Baton Rouge. Thefestival has listedits

andAllanWolf, among

When gifts, thank-yous areacceptableinthe mail

Dear Miss Manners: Youhave been influential in my decisionto take up anew hobby this year: mailing handwritten letters to friends and family for avariety of occasions. This includes handwritten thank-you cards instead of my usual texts of gratitude upon receiving agift when the giver is not present. But Igot myself into a funny conundrum. My aunt recently sent matching dresses to my two youngest girls. However, “Jane’s” dress was delivered by the postman at the same time that he came and took the thankyou card Ihad written for “Jill’s” dress, not knowing Jane was getting one, too.

Judith Martin MISS MANNERS

Ihave alarge extended family with literally dozens of aunts and uncles, and Idonot have this aunt’sphone number.Ifeel like my optionsare as follows: Send another thank-you card tomorrow for both dresses, explaining why I’d sent the first one; ask my mother to text my aunt to let her knowthat Idid,infact, receive both dresses; or both. Ithink it makes sense to do both. What areyour thoughts?

Gentle reader: Unless the first thank-you letter ended with, “And Jane says, ‘Thanks fornothing—where’smydress?”’ it is fine —nay,charming —tosenda second letter without referencing

the first. But if your mother is able to text your aunt,she hasher contact information.Miss Manners is notsuggesting youhavetouse it;she is just curiouswhy,despite the dozens of relatives, youcannotseem to figure out how to find this aunt’snumber. Dear Miss Manners: Ilive in avery smallapartment whosecontents anddecor Ihavecurated according to my specificneedsand taste. But even friends whoknow this about me give me gifts of coffee-table books, artwork,tableware,clothing andmore, none of which Iwould have chosen for myselfand none of whichI have roomfor My gift preferences would be consumables—food,flowers,

LEGACY

Continued from page9C

forthe TigerBand, sponsored seminars for students to recognize someone struggling and funded apart-time counselor

This year,the Matthew Bahlinger Memorial Fund has sponsored afull-time mental health counselor for the students at the College of Music and DramaticArts.

The new counselor,who will be announced in September, will be part of the College of Music and Dramatic Arts and helpprovide students with mental health serviceswhile attendingLSU.

“Wewanted to be acatalyst in providing the kinds of services that could make a difference in people’slives,” Alice Bahlinger said. This counselor will be located in the college’sbuilding, with afully-furnished office and open doors to welcomestudents struggling with their mental health.

Gerald “Bert” Bahlinger said oneofthe foundation’s key aims is to startaconversation around mental health.

“It’sabout making people comfortable in talking about (mental health), reducing stigma,” he said. “If you see someone who’suncomfortable, talk about it. If they’re struggling, let’sdosomething about it.”

The foundation provides TigerBandsection leaders with Question, Persuade, Refer training, which helpsto recognize and assist people strugglingwithmentalhealth. Since 2023,the fund has helped install apart-time graduate student counselor from LSU’sPsychological Services Center for the schoolyear.The counselor’s office, similar to the new full-time position, was inthe College of Music and Dramatic Arts building, with their services available to all

ADVICE

Continued from page9C

music and drama students and all LSUbands.

Having someone available on short notice is crucial it’ssomethingthat both Gerald and Alice Bahlinger say wasn’tavailabletotheir son when he desperately needed it.

“I’m happy this is happeningfor thecollege,” said Eric Lau, dean of theCollege of Music and Dramatic Arts

“Wewant students to come here andthrive,their physical andmental health.This is how we can more fully support our studentswhile they are at LSU.”

At the college,the new mentalhealthproviderwill be integrated into thestaff, accordingtoLau.

“The new counselor will come to facultymeetings, walkaround and meet the students —that’s what will be really special about this” Lau said. “Thecounselor will be able to get to know the students, to be with them throughout their own journeythroughout allofLSU.”

Another of the foundation’s programs is Matt’sDinner With food donated by local restaurants —including ones Matthew workedat—volunteers serve dinner to Tiger Band studentsand staffat theend of Band Camp.On Aug. 15, the foundationhosted itsfourthdinner. Operating like awell-oiledmachine, it fed over 350 peoplein20 minutes.

“(Settingupthe foundation)was bittersweet at first, because the very thing we were doing was something that would have helped Matthew the most,” Alice Bahlinger said. “Itfelt abit like closing the gateafterthe horse had already escaped. But we want to help anyone whoneedshelp,anyonewho wants it.”

Mental health care at LSU

TheCollege of Music and Dramatic Arts is not the only specialty on campus withits

decision, agood effort. While it is sometimes necessary to lovingly criticize apoor decision, there is immense value in sincerely, and in anonpatronizing way,askingthemwhatthey

own in-house “embedded clinician,” according to Raime Thibodeaux,the director of mental health for students at LSU.

Both the LSU LawSchool and LSU Ogden Honors College have theirown mental health specialist that resides in their respective buildings

“They are theirown culture at thelaw school,” Thibodeaux said. “The school wanted to makesure theyhad theaccess they needed. It makes it that mucheasier to get the access needed.Ifthe care is in your house, there are less reasons not to access it.”

However,these clinicians are notsquandered away to certainmajors. Thibodeaux emphasizes that all students in allmajors canand will be providedmentalhealth services at the LSU Student Health Center,even if they just need to be pointed in the right direction.

Much of the workofoncampusmental health clinicians and therapists is in its one-on-one therapy sessions (includingwalk-inopportunities for students in distress). However, there are group therapy sessions as well if thatmethod of care is suitable for astudent

“The heart of what we wanttodoisbesure we provide appropriate access for students,” Thibodeaux said. “Notall studentsneed professional therapy,but we want to be there for those who need it.”

LSUstudentscan schedule an appointment with aprofessional at the mentalhealth center online at no cost.Additionally, walk-in sessions are available to all students from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m at theLSU Student Health Center,16Infirmary Lane, Baton Rouge.

Email Margaret DeLaney at margaret.delaney@ theadvocate.com.

may have learned from decisions that had unfortunate consequences. These are all far more effective at fosteringgrowth and maturity than a“back in my day” lecture.

nicesoaps andthe like —and I do mention this whengiftsare discussed.

Of course, Iamgrateful for their kindness,and always thank them sincerelyina note, but Ifind myself regularly giving these presents away Ionceread that thepurpose of agift was to be received,which hasalleviated someguilty feelings. So far,noone seems to have noticedthattheir presentsare notpresent. Gentle reader: Luckyyou.But even if they are misguided, please remember that your friends’ intentionsare to please you, nottorture you. Andwhat you do withthe presents is up to you. (MissManners is having trouble making sense of your

Reverend celebrated for yearsofservice

The McKowen MissionaryBaptist Church is celebrating and honoring the Rev. GerardA.Robinson Sr.for his 35 years of faithful service to thechurch. Thepublic is invitedtothe celebration at 3p.m. Sunday at 1255 Louise St Baton Rouge.

By The Associated Press

“purpose of agift”quote, but she is pleased that it seems to help youfeel better aboutdonating these items.) As long as youcontinue to thankyourfriends, notberate them fortheir appalling lack of observation,everyonewill be fine.Exceptperhapsthe secondhand recipientsofthe cast-offs, who maybesimilarlyannoyed that youdonot understandtheir tastes.

Sendquestions to Miss Manners at herwebsite, www missmanners.com; to her email, dearmissmanners@gmail.com; or through postal mailtoMiss Manners, Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City,MO 64106.

RELIGION BRIEFS FROM STAFFREPORTS

An evening with Omer ShemTov

ChabadatLSUandGreater Baton Rouge will host an evening with hostage survivor Omer Shem TovonSaturday at the Crowne Plaza BatonRouge,4728 Constitution Ave. The eventwill begin witha VIPreception at 5p.m., followed by doorsopening at 5:45 p.m.,

TODAYINHISTORY

Today is Saturday, Sept.6,the 249thday of 2025. There are 116 days left in the year

Todayinhistory:

On Sept.6,1901, President William McKinley was shot and mortally wounded by anarchist Leon Czolgosz at thePanAmerican Exposition in Buffalo, New York. (McKinley died eight days later and was succeeded by his vice president, Theodore Roosevelt.)

Also on this date:

In 1949, Howard Unruh, aresident of Camden, New Jersey, shotand killed 13 of his neighbors. (Unruh, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, was incarcerated for 60 years until his deathin2009.)

In 1972, theSummer Olympics resumed in Munich, West Germany,aday after the deadly hostage

BOOK

Continuedfrom page9C

thefollowing WordShops:

9a.m. to noon

n Does Your Writing Smell?The Powerof“The FifthSense”presented by Julie Kane

n Building aWriting Career presented by Michele Filgate

1:00 to 4p.m.

n The Great Character

crisis that left11Israelis, five Arab abductors and aWest German police officer dead.

In 1975, 18-year-old tennis star Martina Navratilova of Czechoslovakia, in New York for the U.S. Open, requested political asylum in the United States.

In 1995, Baltimore Oriole Cal Ripken Jr.played in his 2,131st consecutive game, breaking Lou Gehrig’s 56-year-old MLB record; Ripken’sstreak would ultimately reach astill-record 2,632 games.

In 1997, apublic funeral washeld forPrincess Diana at Westminster Abbey in London, six days after her death in acar crash in Paris.

In 2006, President George W. Bush acknowledged for the first time that the CIA was running secret prisons overseas and said “tough” interrogation techniques had forced terrorist leaders

Surrender presented by Kionna Walker LeMalle

n Selling Your Story: Strategies from aTop-Selling Literary Agent presented by Jesse Byrd

Those interested can also attend the Louisiana Book Festival Authors Party

7p.m.to9 p.m. Oct. 31,at the State Library of Louisiana, 701 N. Fourth St., Baton Rouge.Tickets are $65, available forpurchase at www.louisianabookfestival.org/events/authors-

andthe main programbeginning at 6:15 p.m. Shem Tov will share his harrowing account of surviving 505 days in captivityinGaza. Ticketsrange from$5 forstudents to $45for preferred seating.VIP sponsorships with meet and greet opportunities are also available. Proceeds will benefit Shem Tov’srecovery fund. For tickets and more information, visit www chabadbr.com.

to reveal plots to attack the United States and its allies. In 2018, the Supreme Court of India decriminalized consensual sex between adults, legalizing homosexuality in the country In 2022, Liz Truss began her tenure as U.K. prime minister; she would resign just 49 days later

Today’sbirthdays: Comedian JoAnne Worley is 88. Cartoonist Sergio Aragonés is 88. Country singer-songwriter David Allan Coe is 86. Rock singer-musician Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) is 82. Comedian-actor Jane Curtin is 78. Actorcomedian Jeff Foxworthy is 67. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is 63. Television journalist Elizabeth Vargas is 63. Country singer-songwriter Mark Chesnutt is 62. Actor Rosie Perez is 61. R&B singer Macy Gray is 58. Actor Idris Elba is 53. Actor Justina Machado is 53.

party/. The evening affair includes music, Louisiana cuisine andmore. Formore information,email lbf@ state.lib.la.usorcall(225) 219-9503. To seethe full list of panelists andparticipantsof the Louisiana Book Festival, visit louisianabookfestival.org/featured-authorspanelists/featured-participant-lineup/. Email Joy Holdenatjoy holden@theadvocate.com.

VIRGo (Aug. 23-sept. 22) You'll require patience, freedomand desiretoget whatyou want up and running. Don't limit your imagination, but recognize what's possible andwhat isn't.

LIBRA (sept. 23-oct. 23) Do the legwork before liftoff. Now is not the timeto jump into situations unprepared.Social events will offerinsight intorecreational pastimesthat motivate you.

scoRPIo (oct. 24-nov. 22) Consider attendingevents or reunions thatoffer insightinto newpossibilities or partnerships. Change comes at acost, but it also providesexperience that will help mold your future.

sAGIttARIus(nov. 23-Dec. 21) Let's get physical; test your strength and alter your lifestyletoensure you take better care of yourself. Control your situation instead of caving to pleaseothers.

cAPRIcoRn (Dec. 22-Jan.19) Investtime and money intoyourself and what you love to do most. Don't be fooled by offers that lack practicality.Only act when the time is rightfor you, and base the changes you agree to on your needs.

AQuARIus(Jan. 20-Feb.19) Makedomestic changes to suit your lifestyle. Be sure to budgetwisely to avoid financial stress. Discuss your plansand build betterprofessional relationships.

PIscEs (Feb.20-March 20) Expect a changeofplans to disrupt your life. Review your options andmakechoices thatreduce stress. Divert your energy into something that challengesyou

physically and encourages wisechoices.

ARIEs (March 21-April19) Reining in your spending is crucial when managing your finances. Be thoughtful whentrying to convincesomeoneclose to you to buy into your plans. You'll encounter less resistance with apositive attitude.

tAuRus (April 20-May 20) Plan and implement changes that are not emotionally impractical. Only shareyourfeelings with thoseyou can trust to keep asecret or can help you sort through your differences.

GEMInI(May21-June 20) Plan carefully. Timing is everything when it comes to trying new experiences and meeting new people. Physical improvements and exploring what's available to you will encourage you to be better cAncER(June 21-July 22) Expandyour world; participateinevents that offer insight into someone or something you may be able to incorporate into your life. It's time to reach out and discover your options.

LEo (July 23-Aug. 22) Jump into action Choosetotake careofbusiness instead of sittingonthe sidelines. Take an interest in physical improvements that encourageyou to feelconfident and ready to lead.

The horoscope, an entertainment feature, is not based on scientific fact. ©2025 by NEA, Inc., dist. By Andrews McMeel Syndication

Sudoku

InstructIons: Sudoku is anumber-placing puzzle based on a9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers 1to9inthe empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 boxcontains the same number only once. Thedifficulty level of the Sudoku increases from Monday to Sunday

Yesterday’s Puzzle Answer

By PHILLIP ALDER Bridge

Bob Hope said, “Virus is aLatin word used by doctors to mean ‘your guess is as good as mine.’”

Since bridge isn’t alwaysaperfect science, capableofexact calculation, every player hastoguess occasionally. But when you have to guess, consider each sensiblechoice and try to select theone that you think will workmost often.

South guessed wellinthisdeal from a social game. After West’s one-diamond opening (that hand was fartoo good fora weaktwo-bid),North’stwo-clubovercall, and East’spass, South advanced witha forcingtwo hearts.(More pairs treatthis bid as encouraging but nonforcing; Iprefer forcing by an unpassed hand.)When North rebid two no-trump, what should South have done next?

Many players would have immediatelyraised to three no-trump. Butthat contract wouldhavehad no chance assuming East led the diamond seven, not aspade.

At the table, though, South forced to game with athree-diamondcue-bid. And whenNorth admitted to secondaryheart support with athree-heartbid, South raised to four.

True, thiscontract would have failed if the defense had gone club ace, club ruff, diamond to the ace, club ruff. But no West was ever going to guess that. Instead, he led the spade eight. Declarer woninhis hand, drewtrumps, anddrove outthe clubace. West had to cashthe diamondace to stop asecond overtrick. Irrelevant to this deal,ifyou study results, you will see that experts guess better than nonexperts. ©2025 by NEA,Inc dist.

By AndrewsMcMeel Syndication

wuzzles

Each Wuzzle is aword riddle which creates adisguisedword, phrase,name, place, saying, etc. For example:NOON GOOD =GOOD AFTERNOON

Previous answers:

word game

InstRuctIons: 1. Words must be of four or more letters. 2. Words that acquire four lettersbythe addition of “s,”such as “bats” or “dies,”are not allowed. 3. Additional words made by adding a“d” or an “s” may not be used. 4. Proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit words are not allowed.

toDAy’s WoRD oVERVIEWs: OH-ver-vyooz: Summarizes.

Average mark 23 words Time limit

Can youfind 46 or more words in OVERVIEWS?

yEstERDAy’s WoRD —MIcRoBEs